Chimera
by OnyxIvyStone
Summary: Two brothers battle in a cave of bone, one for their father's sword while the other, to avenge a slain girl. When Kagome stands unharmed with sword in hand, time stands still. Sesshomaru's choice will change everything. Sess/Kag
1. A Slight Diversion

Traversing the Ether of Dreams 

Part One

A Slight Diversion

Every point upon a path is necessary to arrive at the ultimate destination. And is not one's destination really their destiny? The world is spinning on a pin's head and infinitely fragile. At any moment our worlds could slip and we would never know, even looking back upon what had been and might have been and could be. Humankind has asked the question from their first moments of thought over and over again into the present day: Are we masters of our worlds or is our world our master? Do we control the strings or are we puppets? The only answer comes at the end when the life fades and we can see, completely, what the universe is truly made of. But sometimes it seems as if those powers that shape all that is take some perverse pleasure in taunting us with a vision of what might have been had the path been diverted through one act alone.

The acrid scent of his poison mingled with burning bone and flesh filled the hollowed belly of their father's corpse. Rage crossed the hanyou's face and the great Taiyoukai, Sesshomaru, realized the gambit he had dispatched with the ease one might crush a spider between their fingertips. It is a strange thing to realize the importance of a person or thing once it is gone. Such realizations put the world into perspective.

She had drawn the sword of their father as if he had chosen her to choose in his absence to which its power would belong. But her? A mortal girl, barely on the cusp of her womanhood? The thought befuddled him momentarily. His confusion had infuriated him along with her annoying taunting. His rage had caused him to make a mistake and destroy the pretty little girl… Well, pretty for a human. And, in the span of a heartbeat, as he watched his brother begin to advance upon him after their parlay, Sesshomaru realized entirely that his impulsive need to silence her mouth had given his brother a reason to fight with nothing left for him to lose. And there was nothing more dangerous than a man who has no fear of loss seeking vengeance.

Under the rain of acid, her mind was a pool of pain and confusion. She was gone, dead, lost. Or so she believed. She felt the warm touch of a hand on her cheek. She opened her eyes and saw a man whose countenance was a blend of Sesshomaru's regal visage and the earthy strength of Inuyasha.

"Who are you?" She asked softly through the haze of her pain.

"The master of the sword you hold. You are in my grave. I have some power here, still. Even though I am dead."

"Am I dead?"

"Yes, but not for long. You see, my sons need you."

"I don't understand."

"You don't have to. When you wake, this will fade like it were only a dream. They will believe that my sword protected you, though the truth is far more than they could grasp."

"You are going to save me?"

He nodded and gently embraced the girl's spirit, relieving her pain as he regenerated her ruined body. "You see, Kagome..."

"You know my name."

"I know everything about you, Kagome. But that is beside the point. You see, Kagome, I died long before I could impart the true knowledge of power to both of my sons. Where it comes from and how to wield it. You are the key to my lessons and I have waited for a very long time for you to arrive here. Though you will remember nothing of this in only an instant, I must give you one piece of advice before I leave you that might allow you greater ease in helping me achieve my goal."

"What is that?" She felt herself being pulled back to her body. She fought with what strength she had in her so she could hear his words.

"Love and hate are the same emotion. They come from the same place in our souls. Love is creation and hate is destruction. Understanding this truth will be the key to every door set in front of you to be opened. Do not be afraid, Kagome. Do not flinch. Everything will be revealed and understood in the end. This is where paths divert."

"Will you be with me?" Her voice was fading as she was drawn back into her living flesh. The resonant tones of his voice and the warmth of his touch reminded her of her own father. The memories were like wisps of smoke in her mind, but his presence made them real for her again. She felt safe, like she was home.

"I always have been, Kagome. I always will be."

She felt her legs again and her arms and her face where she was buried under the thin blanket of bone and earth. The sword was still clutched tightly in her hands and she trembled as she heard the sounds of battle nearby. She fought to remember the dream she had just had. It was warm and beautiful and safe in her mind, but it was disappearing and that sent a pang through her. She trembled again and stood slowly on shaking legs.

His eyes turned onto the girl. She should have been dead. From the look on his bastard brother's face, he thought she should have died as well. It was that look that made his decision for him. Without thought or pause, Sesshomaru dashed forward and gathered the girl in his arms. She fought him. She called out for Inuyasha to save her. But he had her and she had the sword and while she held the coveted fang, it did not harm him where is skin brushed the hilt.

Inuyasha paused, frozen in place with a look of horror crossing his face. Sesshomaru had Kagome. This girl who was both shard detector, reminder of his long lost love and friend was held in the deadly embrace of his evil brother who had made his own life hell. "Put her down, Sesshomaru."

"It would seem I have the means to possess our father's sword and disable you. Come any closer and I will snap her slender neck." Kagome froze at his words and pressed her eyes closed. He was going to kill her if she fought him, she knew it. She knew it as instinctually as she knew Inuyasha would have killed her had the rosary not been placed on him.

"What do you want, Sesshomaru?"

"I have what I want, Inuyasha. What I need from you is that you will not follow me. If you do, I promise you that I will kill her without a second thought."

The hanyou trembled in rage and resignation. He hated his brother with a deep loathing passion, but he couldn't risk Kagome's death. For some reason, the girl had been able to cheat her own death at Sesshomaru's hands once. Inuyasha did not know if her luck would hold a second time and he would not endanger her. "Go. But if you harm her, I promise you I'll kill you, Sesshomaru."

The Taiyoukai smiled a dark and evil smile. "Do not worry, little brother. So long as she keeps you at bay and out of my lands, I will ensure no harm comes to her."

"Inuyasha…" Her voice was weak and frightened. Their eyes met and the hanyou nodded in an assuring gesture.

Before he or she could exchange another word, Sesshomaru propelled out of his father's corpse and flew from the nether realm into the world of the living. Kagome whimpered and pressed her eyes closed while she gripped the hilt of the Tetsuaiga even more tightly. In turn, Sesshomaru tightened his hold on her. "What are you going to do with me?"

Sesshomaru looked down at the girl with her eyes closed. "I do not know yet, though I suppose I shall have to make a place to put you for a time. At least until the spell on the sword that keeps me from claiming it is removed. Until then, there will be a place in my palace for you that you will not leave. After that, if Inuyasha is still a bane to me, I will consider allowing you to live to ensure he is kept under control." He smiled darkly. "Pray that you keep your usefulness."

"What if I find some other way I'm useful to you?"

"Unlikely. You are human. I have little use for humans." Sesshomaru felt a thrill of sadistic delight when she trembled in his grasp. "Other youkai might find a use for you… Many are very fond of human flesh."

"No! Please… Please don't do that…"

His smile returned as his delight only grew. She was even prettier when she was terrified. "I will consider it."

"Do… Do you eat humans?"

At her question, his lips curled into a snarl. The thought disgusted him. "No. Inuyoukai do not eat humans. We eat our food uncooked, but it is considered uncouth to eat humans."

She relaxed faintly and her breathing began to slow along with the beating of her heart. She even chanced opening her eyes, but, upon finding herself high over the earth flying with the Taiyoukai toward his palace, her heartbeat sped again and she began to gasp for breath with her eyes pressed tightly shut. It vaguely annoyed him that their height could frighten more than he could. "Please, please don't drop me."

"Do not be foolish, girl." He grumbled faintly. He tightened his arm around her waist so she was more flush with his torso. It seemed to calm her. Much to his annoyance, his seeming inherent ability to abate her fears brought him a similar surge of delight as his ability to terrify her. _It is only because I have power over her. I can control her. That is why her reactions affect me so greatly. Nothing else._

Soon enough, they landed in the courtyard of his palace. Jaken arrived a short time later with AhUn. The toad would not silence about the impropriety of a human being in the palace. If he were not careful, he would be dead. Sesshomaru had only so much patience for his imp's antics.

"Her presence in my home is your concern only in that I wish you to prepare a room for her. It is to be locked from the outside and warded so none of the youkai on the grounds may reach her. Do you understand?"

Jaken silenced and shook visibly. "Y-yes, my Lord. But Lord Sesshomaru, what will I tell the courtiers?"

"They need not be told anything. If they have questions to present me in regard to my rule, they may come to me directly."

The toad shook again, visibly, and nodded before leaving to complete his task.

Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru. The sword was still clutched to her chest and she was still frightened, but not of the Taiyoukai any longer. She knew he had been playing with her for a while, but he had also tried to comfort her and soothe her fears. Anyone who did that couldn't be all bad. The more she looked up at Sesshomaru, the more she began to wonder why the brothers hated each other so incredibly. The amber gaze of the tall inuyoukai fell down upon her and caused her to look away and blush at being caught staring.

Sesshomaru felt faint amusement. The girl was acting the modest, virginal saint. Her attire spoke nothing of the same. She was dressed more scantily than a cheap human whore. Even geisha would shun her. "I will send a seamstress to you in the morning. Your clothing is inappropriate for my home and brings disgrace upon us both."

"I… I'm sorry, but where I come from it's normal to dress like this."

"You come from a colony of whores?"

He raised his brow as her blush changed from mild embarrassment to a deep crimson of pure and uncontrollable rage. "Excuse me!? I do not! Take that back!"

"I state a fact. You look as if you are a whore and you say you come from a place where many dress as you are dressed, so you must live in a colony of whores." He found himself even more greatly amused when she stomped her foot and raised a finger to poke his armor. She was fiery, no doubt, but she also had courage. Or perhaps it was that she was naïve to the gravity of her actions and words. In either event, he found his choice to abduct the human girl to be more of a wise one if only for her amusement value.

"I am not a whore. I'm from the future. I came through this old dry well that, in my time, is in a shrine built in the middle of a huge city. In the future, this is a school uniform. All the girls my age and younger who are in my school dress in identical uniforms."

"You presume to tell me you are from the future and that, in your future, women are educated while dressed as whores?"

"I'm not dressed like a whore!"

"So you say, but to my eyes any kimono so short allowing such easy access to your womanhood could and should only be worn by a whore. If you are, indeed, from the future, there is no real way to prove such a fact to me aside from taking me into the future. As I am in no mood for such games, you cannot hope to prove yourself to me and so, for your own sake I suggest that you allow a seamstress to measure you for new clothing that are befitting a maiden… That is if you are a maiden."

"Of course I'm a virgin! I'm only fifteen years old! I haven't even had a boyfriend before."

"I have seen girls younger than you married to men many times your senior. It is not a completely ridiculous question, as your tone might suggest. And, with regard to a boy who is your friend, surely you consider Inuyasha your friend. If you do not, some of your usefulness has already left you."

"I… No, the term means… Damnit." She stomped her feet again and he found himself having to fight the slight curling of his lips in his amusement. "Inuyasha's my friend. But the term boyfriend means… Well, I guess it means kinda like someone who was courting me with the intention of more? Lots of girls older than me have a bunch of boyfriends they run around with… Some of the older girls even have sex with all of them, but that's really… I just can't imagine doing that with someone I didn't love."

He quirked his brow at her tangent. "So you are from a school that teaches girls to be whores. Apparently you are failing if you do not consider mating unless you have fallen into such a weakened state as love."

Her mouth opened as if she planned on saying something. Her deep crimson paled a bit and she closed her mouth for a moment. "You aren't going to let me go home, are you?"

"Most assuredly not."

"But I have school and my mother…"

"Any mother that would allow her daughter to go to a school for whores does not deserve to have her daughter return home. You are virginal. Allowing you to return home would allow you to be ruined and, while I care little for your happiness, since I have taken you into my home, your honor has become my responsibility." Her eyes began to shimmer and well with tears. He tisked and scowled. "No tears. If you insist on crying, you will be sequestered to your room until you see the folly of your actions and tears. You should be happy that this Sesshomaru has decided to take you into his home and considers your honor. It means that when you have exhausted your usefulness you will still have safety and a place here."

"But I want to go home!" Her tears spilled and he growled faintly.

As Jaken approached, Sesshomaru met the imp's eyes. "Notify the seamstress that she will be needed to create a new wardrobe for this girl. The cooks must also ensure she has human food prepared for her thrice daily. "

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru. Her room is in the Eastern wing. Would you like me to show her there?"

"No, I shall. Her temperament and intelligence is questionable at present and I fear she might run if I trust her to your inferior strength."

"I'm right here!" She yowled and earned a nasty look from the angry Taiyoukai.

"I could not forget if I so wished, girl. Come with me now or I will drag you."

She whimpered and followed him, still clutching the sword as if it were the only thing she had to hold onto in the world. Perhaps it really was. Once she reached the room that had been prepared for her, the Taiyoukai led her in. The room was beautiful but simple. It wasn't a servant's room, but it also wasn't royalty. It certainly rivaled her own, though she found herself aching for her own bed and her mother. Especially her mother. She couldn't stop crying, but then, she didn't want to.

"Your clothing will be burnt once you have been provided a new wardrobe. All that was your life is no longer and you will abandon any thought of attempting escape or returning to your home. Until the spell on the sword has been broken, it will be in your care. If anything befalls it, the fault will be yours." He turned and began to leave. He could not stand her useless tears. He was being kind to her when he did not have to and she treated his hospitality as if it were a death sentence.

"Lord Sesshomaru?"

Her voice was so small and hurt that he found himself stopping simply in curiosity. "What is it?"

"Don't you even want to know my name?"

He smirked and turned once the expression of amusement left his features. "Only if you wish I should call you by it rather than by a name of my own choosing."

Her eyes danced with faint amusement and he found he liked that shimmer in the exotic blue. "My name is Kagome."

"Very well, Kagome. Take your rest. Food will be brought to you for your evening meal." He turned and began to close the door and lock it, then found himself smiling faintly at her next words before she was secured in her gilded cell.

"Thank you, Lord Sesshomaru."

Once he was away from the girl's door, he frowned and reached into his long hair, pulling the flea, Myoga, from his pristine silver strands. He met the annoying creature's gaze. "That such a parasite could rise in my father's court truly speaks to his folly. What is it you want?"

"Lord Sesshomaru, forgive me, but you must know that your father never intended for you to have the Tetsuaiga. It is meant to be Inuyasha's."

He crushed the flea between his fingers in annoyance. "What he meant no longer matters. He is dead as both you and that coward Totosai soon will be for defying me and keeping Tetsuaiga hidden from me all this time."

"Your brother needs that sword, Sesshomaru. In time his power will become more than he can handle and he will be possessed by his youkai blood. He will kill without thought. The only thing that stands in the way of that is your father's sword."

"Then he may have Tenseiga. It is useless but also possesses our father's power. Surely it could contain my weak bastard half brother's power." Sesshomaru smiled wickedly. "Or I could kill him. That would seem the easier path."

"No! You can't!"

"You've never been able to give me a good reason why I cannot, flea. If you have not found a reason in the two centuries since his birth, certainly you will not procure one now."

"Sesshomaru, you have had countless opportunities to slay Inuyasha and yet you have never taken them. You are known for your perfection in dealing death and your fearlessness and prowess in battle and still you have allowed the hanyou to live. Why is that?"

"He provides momentary amusement. Also it is dishonorable to kill an opponent who is so poorly equipped." Sesshomaru smiled and took delight in the flea's shudder. "I see your point, flea. Why not give Inuyasha the sword so he may be a worthy opponent and grant me my desire to slay him? I still hold the girl, Kagome. I have seen he holds some care for her. Using her as barter so that he learns to use our father's sword so that we might fight and I am given the outlet to prove my worth as our father's successor might serve my desires. Then I could claim the sword on his death and no one would question me again."

"Sesshomaru, that isn't what I meant." Myoga felt his pulse pounding in his ears. The Taiyoukai was terrifying normally. When he plotted it often brought Myoga a kind of fear he only knew staring into the bowels of hell.

"Be happy I need you to deliver my proposal to Inuyasha, flea. Go and deliver my message that, on pain of Kagome's death, he should learn to use Tetsuaiga and, in time, duel with me. The sword will be delivered to him in seven days. Go now and do not return or I will do more than crush you." He said and smirked as the flea departed more quickly than Sesshomaru had ever seen him before.

He looked back toward the door of the girl he had abducted. He could still hear her sobs, though he knew she had not heard his conversation with Myoga. He sighed faintly and shook his head before returning to his own chambers across the palace in the Western wing. He removed his armor and lay back on his bed after running his fingers through his hair. He felt the fondness for the girl again begin to stir and fought it back. It was his nature, he knew. Inuyoukai had a particularly annoying fondness for humans. It had been his father's doom and had become his own personal hell once Inuyasha had been born. In a land where strength was measured by a ruler's ability to abandon attachment and care while adopting ferocity and cruelty to keep order, his father had weakened his own regime and, subsequently, Sesshomaru's in favor of love and carnality with a human woman rather than maintaining his power.

It infuriated him. What infuriated him even more was that Sesshomaru, much to his chagrin, was falling into the same trap. The trap was named Kagome this time. The Taiyoukai snarled and scowled. Even if Inuyasha refused, Sesshomaru knew very well he would not kill the girl. He had taken her honor as his own and that included her well being. Her safety was of the utmost importance now and he hated himself for allowing such a thing to happen. But it was his nature. It was his instincts reacting to her. A man could only fight his nature so long before he broke.

It was not as if he liked her or enjoyed her presence. She was annoying and weak and cried far too much. She provided him some amusement, but amusement was not enjoyment. His lips quirked at the thought of her becoming some form of entertainment for him. Like a jester of sorts. He could frighten her and watch her quake, then tease her and watch her rage, then be kind to her and watch her… No. Perhaps he should not be kind. Being kind to her would make a show that would convince others he might actually care for the girl when he did not. No, she would be his toy until he could find a human man who he could marry her off to once he had ensured her whorish habits were entirely unlearnt. Though he would mourn if she lost her fire. Her fire made her… Amusing.

------

"You expect me to believe that, Myoga?" He looked at the flea incredulously, trying to decide if he wished to crush him again.

"You have to believe me, Inuyasha. Sesshomaru intends to return Tetsuaiga to you in seven days time so you may master it and fight him. If you do not, he will kill Kagome."

Inuyasha snarled and looked down at his hands. He was happy that she was alive but enraged that she was not with him. There was rightness about when she was near. He felt like he had a family even though she was so very new to him. He knew he would bend to his brother's will for that reason alone. "Where does he want me to go?"

"He did not say. I believe he intends to find you to deliver the sword. Once he does, you must accompany me to find Totosai. We will teach you to use the Tetsuaiga and then you must quest to enhance its power once more."

"What do you mean? Isn't it powerful enough on its own?"

"The sword is very powerful as your father was very powerful, however it also possesses innate abilities. It is constantly learning new attacks from other youkai so that it can adapt to any battle. The only way to learn those new attacks and techniques is to defeat stronger and stronger youkai."

"Which means I gotta keep fighting and learning or else I won't ever master the sword." He smirked and shook his head. "I ain't ever had to carry a sword before. Never been taught to use one."

"It was your father's place to, but with his death much about your rearing was ignored or forgotten. Had Sesshomaru not been so devout in maintaining and strengthening the West once Inu no Taisho died, perhaps he would have taught you."

"Feh. I doubt it. He hates me. He hates everyone and everything that even remotely smells of human."

"It is true that Sesshomaru is a black hearted youkai, but he is still inuyoukai. Your kind have an innate bond with humanity that can be traced back to when humans were still living in caves and fighting for their very survival. He might distain humanity, however I do not believe that is why he hates you."

"I know it ain't why he hates me. I know exactly why he does. Cause my birth made everyone question our father's strength and his."

"It goes even deeper than that, Inuyasha. While you are alive and not marked as subordinate to him, as his younger brother and another of Inu no Taisho's heirs you could defeat him in a duel and take the West from him."

"So that's it. But I don't want the bastard's lands. I don't want his damned court neither. All I ever wanted was to be free without people fighting me all the time for things I can't control… Because I'm different from them."

"It doesn't matter, Inuyasha. Unless you submit to him and let him mark you, you remain the question to his rule and so he will constantly have to defend his position."

He sighed and shook his head, again turning his gaze to his claws. "Kagome and me were gonna go and collect the shards of the Shikon no Tama. She broke it and now it's scattered all over the land. If the pieces aren't collected, youkai all over will become stronger when they possess its pieces. But if I could gather them all… I'd be able to become a full inuyoukai and maybe defeat Sesshomaru and save Kagome."

"While we wait for Sesshomaru to bring the sword to you, we can begin gathering them."

"I can't sense them, though… Kagome could, but I can't."

"Then we will simply have to find someone who can, Inuyasha. Surely someone of a holy order could help us. I will seek out a monk or miko who would be willing to aid us in seeking out the shards of the Shikon no Tama. In the mean time, you should gather supplies and prepare for the arrival of your brother."

"Hurry and find someone, Myoga. The sooner you do, the sooner we can get the jewel and I can save Kagome." AS Myoga bounded off, Inuyasha sighed again and rested his head in his hands. He had to go and tell Kaede what had happened. Perhaps she would know of a way to save Kagome so they could begin their quest.

------

"Tell me exactly why you allowed yourselves to be thrown out of her room? She is only a human girl." His rage had returned. The seamstress had come to him along with her apprentices shaking in fear because the girl, Kagome, had scared them out of her room while they were measuring her.

"She is powerful, Lord Sesshomaru. You did not tell us she had purification powers!"

He scowled and sighed. "I will deal with her." He threw open the door to her room and came face to face with the angry young woman who was still resonating with holy miko power. "You would threaten to purify my servants? Have you any idea what dangerous ground you tread on, Girl?"

"My name is Kagome!"

"Names are for those who act like people, not raging children more apt to tantrum than thinking logically. I will not call you by your name unless you decide to start acting like a person." He advanced on her and scoffed as she tried to burn him with her energies. Her power tingled unpleasantly, but she was not anywhere near powerful enough to harm him. He gripped her wrists and met her disbelieving eyes. "There is no mortal girl who can kill me, nor hanyou nor demon unless they are on par with my power and I can assure you there is none in this land who comes any where near my level, so you should end this futile attempt at my life before I decide that your honor is not worth my patience."

She whimpered and stopped attempting to purify him. Once she had calmed, he released her and she sat heavily on the bed. She was still wearing her awful clothing. His father's sword was sitting on her pillows, wrapped in silk. "I don't want them to burn my clothing… They're all I have of my home."

He raised a graceful brow and shook his head in amusement. "Girl…"

"Kagome."

"Not until you cease your useless pouting and begin acting like an adult. Now, Girl, you will hear me. The clothing you wear is indecent. If I do not burn them and allow you to keep them, you will no doubt try to wear them again and I cannot allow that."

"What if I promise not to?"

"You have given me no reason to trust you." He scowled as she began to cry and sighed faintly. "Alright… I shall keep them safe for you until you have proven I can trust you and then I will return them to you."

"Do you promise?"

"I do not say what I do not mean." His eyes fell on the sword and reached out to it. With the thick layer of silk binding it completely, the spell did not react to him. He turned to look at the girl as he stood with Tetsuaiga in his hand. "You have cared for this long enough."

"What are you going to do with it?" She felt herself begin to panic. If he took the sword away from her, did that mean he didn't have any use for her and she would be killed or disposed of? "I can protect it, I promise I can…"

"That is not your function any longer, Girl. Now allow the seamstress to measure you and find something for you to wear while your wardrobe is being made."

"What are you going to do with the Tetsuaiga?"

He smirked faintly at the panic in her voice. "It is none of your concern. What is your concern is learning to control your temper and not accosting my servants or me. You need not fear your fate, Girl." He said gently as he turned toward the door. "As I have said, I have made your honor my concern. Even if your usefulness regarding Inuyasha fails, there will be no harm brought to you. Unless, of course, you make yourself too much trouble for me or prove yourself unworthy of my care by continuing to be insolent. Now allow your self to be measured and dressed."

"Could I make a request?"

He didn't turn to meet her eyes and sighed faintly. "If it is not too much trouble."

"I… I don't even know how to walk in regular kimonos. I've never worn one… Could they be altered slightly so I can move easier?"

"You should learn to wear traditional attire for a lady, Kagome. But, for the time being, I will allow your request. Now trouble me no more."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru."

He smiled faintly as he left, closing the door after him. The girl had fire, but she could learn and would learn. At the moment, her aptitude was directly connected to her desire to live. He hoped, in time, he did not need to resort to frightening her in order to make her mind him. He looked down at the silk wrapped sword in his hands. He was certain if he removed the thick layer of fabric, the blade would reject him again. The spell was barely accepting him as it was. He reached his study and called for members of his personal guard.

He slipped the sword into the hands of Isamu, an inuyoukai and the son of his father's second in command. "Do not remove the silk or the spell Inu no Taisho placed on it will harm you. It is to be brought to my half brother, Inuyasha, in seven days. Find him and follow him until the time comes and then report what he has been doing to me upon your return. Do not allow him to sense your presence."

"What will we tell him upon our meeting?" Isamu asked softly, raising his eyes but not meeting Sessomaru's gaze.

"Tell him the human girl, Kagome, is well and safe and will remain so unless he attempts to retrieve her. Ensure that he understands that her life is entirely hinged upon whether or not he is capable to keep his distance until we may duel and end this ridiculous question of who the proper heir to our father is. If he does not, tell him I will not hesitate in ending her pitiful existence."

"My Lord… Forgive me, but did you not make it plain to us that her honor is your concern now and that if any harm came to her, ever, that we would be at your mercy?" Isamu felt himself shudder when his lord began to laugh. "Lord Sesshomaru, forgive my insolence…"

"It is not insolence, Isamu, it is a relevant question. Simply because I have said to communicate such a thing to Inuyasha does not make it true. I know that the threat to her life will keep him in line with my wishes and so I send the message. This deceit is for his own benefit as well as hers."

"So you do not intend her harm?"

"Only if she makes me harm her." He replied vaguely. "Now go with two others of your choosing. Ensure they are trustworthy and that you return posthaste upon the completion of your mission. Do you understand?"

Isamu bowed and left with the other guards to begin the quest he was sent on. He wondered, vaguely, if Sesshomaru would fall to the same weakness his father had. It was not inuyoukai who looked down on Inu no Taisho's transgressions with the mortal woman which created Inuyasha. Isamu, himself, understood as his lover was human and with her had sired several hanyou children. It was frowned upon by other youkai, but certainly not inuyoukai. The war Inu no Taisho fought and that it seemed Sesshomaru was damned to fight was against all other youkai who would see his transgressions as weakness. Isamu promised himself, silently, as he knew the rest of Sesshomaru's personal guard of inuyoukai warriors had already, that he would stand beside his lord without question, no matter what the future held.

------

He snarled faintly as he looked on the scar upon the tree where Inuyasha had been held for nearly half a century. He had felt the Shikon no Tama shatter and it had enraged him. Now he would have to fight to regain its power as well as dispose of that troublesome hanyou.

Naraku turned from the tree and walked into the night. There was much to be done and he had time. Time enough to accomplish his goals.


	2. Increasingly Divergent Vectors

Traversing the Ether of Dreams 

Part Two

Increasingly Divergent Vectors

Truth is subjective and reality based entirely on truth. If one's perspective of truth is shifted even marginally, their reality changes. One cannot remain the same in an entirely obtuse reality. A person faced with such a shift in the whole structure of their existence are given only the option of collapsing upon themselves or adapting, changing and becoming someone entirely new.

Before she had been taken or, rather, stolen into the care and protection of a certain stoic taiyoukai and brother to the man who was, at once, her savior and almost her murderer, Kagome had simply been a fifteen year old school girl. There was nothing particularly singular about her aside from the unique and rare shade of her eyes. They were the color of the sky at dawn between the aspect of the spectrum where the blossoming pinks were born and the black was banished along with the stars. She could not be considered classically beautiful in the standards of her culture. She was far too tall and her face too angular rather than cherubic. Her limbs were too long and her torso too short, her hips too wide and her chest too buxom. And then there was the matter of her hands. They were slender and proportionate with her body, surely, however their general size made them hardly dainty as tradition would have called a woman to be. She was not plain, however she was not beautiful. Kagome's existence was one caught between aspects and, as she was forced to adapt to her life in Sesshomaru's home, she found herself further caught between worlds. The world of humans and the world of youkai. The world of the past and the world of her birth. Inuyasha's world and Sesshomaru's world. The frightening truth was that she was beginning to see each side of each dichotomy with such a perspective that either one was desirable to her in one fashion or another.

In the few weeks that she had lived under the care of the Western Lord, Kagome had learned one very pertinent truth. She could forgive him as easily as she had forgiven Inuyasha for attempting to take her life. Both men were distant in their own ways. Both believed they were entirely correct the whole of the time and neither enjoyed backing down to anyone, especially not to the other. In fact, if she looked carefully enough, there was very little difference between the brothers aside from how they reacted to the world. Inuyasha's temperament was brash, unchecked and, often, uncontrollable. He was ruled by his emotions and impulses and instincts. His word was as unsteady as his place in the world, which the taiyoukai had explained to her, was not very much of a place at all. Sesshomaru was so incredibly in control of himself that it seemed he had no emotions at all. His silence, however, spoke volumes to Kagome. The longest conversations she had even had with him had been those which had taken place her first few days in his home and since then he had closed off very much verbally. When he did speak, she found that, while he often was speaking the truth of his perceptions or actions, there was always an aspect of joviality. While his words were always serious, his underlying meaning was never serious. She wondered if it was his way of surviving his obvious immortality to laugh at the world and how pitifully it faltered and changed while he remained unchanged.

Her world spiraled around the tutors that Sesshomaru had employed to teach her proper etiquette, manners and grace. When he had learned that she could read and write he had also ordered that her education be furthered in all areas she wished to explore. Her mind was thirsty for knowledge and he silently, but happily, obliged his new ward with outlets for her inquisitiveness and desire to learn. While she excelled academically, she faltered in every other way. It vexed her to no end, however Sesshomaru, with his seemingly eternal patience, took no note of her failures and chose to, instead, focus on her successes. Grace was not inherent. It could be learned in time and with enough practice and so he did not trouble himself with the reports of how hopelessly clumsy Kagome was or how her temperament was unruly. She could learn. He knew she could learn. It was vastly important that she acquired knowledge of both youkai and human customs and practices in court and daily life. She had to conduct herself as a proper lady whenever she was in public no matter how outspoken or fiery she was in private with him or whoever he found to take her once she was completely educated where her honor and virtue would be protected.

The taiyoukai sat in quiet meditation over his tea on the balcony of his personal quarters and had been there since dawn contemplating what Isamu had relayed to him upon his return from speaking to Inuyasha. The hanyou had been harder to find than they had anticipated and, once they had found him, he had been in the company of a monk named Miroku who, it seemed, was very powerful spiritually.

They had approached the unlikely and, from all observations, mismatched duo with care before making their presence known. Isamu had reported that neither had openly threatened the taiyoukai's guards, though the monk had held his hand before him in a fist in almost an offensive way.

"What the hell did my brother send you here for?" Inuyasha had snarled. His palm was cut and dripping blood, no doubt in preparation for an attack.

Isamu stepped forward and bent to one knee, holding out the sword still wrapped in silk to the hanyou respectfully. He was not afraid of Inuyasha so much as had respected his father and so showed the hanyou what courtesy he could even if Sesshomaru did not. "The Western Taiyoukai sends you his father's sword so that you may strengthen its power and make ready for a duel with him to finally determine the validity of his claim to power. He wished that you be informed, Inuyasha, that if you do not do as he requests, the human girl, Kagome, who lives now as his ward in his care, will be killed."

The hanyou bristled. "The bastard knows I don't want his power."

"What you desire now does not end the stir within the land. It is what you might desire later that must be thwarted and your possible worth that must be assessed. It will be a duel to the death and so, it is advisable that you take the sword that has been offered and begin your quest to strengthen it as much as you are able. It is the order of your brother, the great Sesshomaru."

"Come off it, Isamu." He scoffed and reached out to take the sword from the inuyoukai with a harsh motion. "We both know that if the bastard thought I was a threat, he'd have killed me outright years ago. This ain't about me trying to take over. It's about him still hating me and my mother for what happened after our father died. Sesshomaru's had to scrape and claw for his power since he took our father's place and if he kills me, the only evidence of Inu no Taisho's weakness, he thinks that it'll make things easier for him."

Isamu smirked and stood, shaking his head. "Perhaps there is some of that to it, but do not forget that this is most truly about honor. Strengthen the sword. Face your brother and die with courage."

The inuyoukai turned and only paused at the hanyou's voice. His soul was stilled by his words. "I got an obligation, Isamu. Tell Sesshomaru I'll strengthen the sword, but in my own time. I gotta collect the shards of the Shikon no Tama for Kagome. And don't try to fool me. He's an asshole, but Sesshomaru won't kill Kagome. Even if I wasn't gonna face him."

He did not need to turn to see the cock-sure grin on the hanyou's face to know it was there. "What makes you so certain? When has your brother ever lied?"

"It's in his nature, Isamu. In both our natures. Dogs only bite when they've been hurt or scared and Kagome can't hurt anyone. It ain't in her nature. And I sure as hell know she doesn't scare him." Inuyasha turned to walk away with the monk following him. "And besides… If he was gonna kill her, he would have done it by now. He wouldn't be using her to bribe me into fighting him."

Sesshomaru scowled and looked down into his now entirely chilled tea. "Bribe him. Indeed." The sound of laughter caught his attention and he looked out into the garden. The girl, Kagome, was sitting on the lip of a fountain with her bare feet dipping into the cool, clear water. Her hair was free, though the combs she used to hold it up were laid neatly next to her sandals and stockings. Her chambermaid and personal escort, Miyoko, sat nearby watching the girl with a faint smile on her aged face. She was an inuyoukai and had mothered many pups. He knew she would care for the girl and teach her what she needed to know while still nurturing the fire he so cherished in her. He knew Miyoko would because she had been his own nurse centuries before. The old woman, even then, understood how to enforce the rules while still allowing affection and freedom of spirit in her wards. Countless millennia had taught her how to maintain such a precarious equilibrium without fear of tipping the scales.

The taiyoukai scowled as he noticed the impish countenance of Jaken approaching his ward and her escort. No doubt the toad would disturb the girl's reverie in the simple beauties around her and the innocent delight she seemed to take in bathing and splashing her feet during the warm summer day.

No sooner than his scowl was fully realized than he heard the awful green creature's shrill voice, though he doubted it could be called a voice, begin to howl and scold the raven haired innocent who had been taking so much delight in her reprieve from her studies.

"Kagome, you insolent girl! No lady would be caught in such a precarious position without shoes or her hair kept! If my Lord Sesshomaru even heard a whisper of such an outrage he would have you thrown out, or worse, give you to a dragon youkai for their supper!"

She trembled and fought shrinking away from the toad. She knew Sesshomaru would not send her away, she was sure of it. The reason she trembled was more because she was trying so desperately to control her temper and the little toad vexed her beyond words most of the time.

"Jaken." Miyoko's voice was even but firm. The toad abandoned his scolding and turned an incredulous gaze onto the elderly inuyoukai who was approaching her ward in a very protective manner. "You should know better than to take the care of Sesshomaru's ward into your own hands. She is my responsibility and mine alone. Would you question my decision to allow her to be the child she still is for a few moments a day knowing how many pups I have raised including the taiyoukai of this land? To question my decisions is to question his."

Her voice had never risen even slightly in timbre or volume, however, her eyes had become fierce and her stance one of challenge. Jaken took a step back and bowed lowly to the female. "Forgive me. I would never question the taiyoukai."

"Perhaps you should continue on your business, Jaken. I believe you were going in the direction of the concubines' quarters behind the gardens." She said, softly, relaxing slightly and allowing her challenging gaze to fall.

"Yes…" He stammered slightly and then turned on his heel to return to his trek to the far ends of the gardens.

Once he was out of sight, Miyoko sat beside Kagome and pushed her hair back behind her ears before speaking lightly with a smile on her face. "You are doing better, you know. I could smell your rage at his annoying impertinence and I want you to know I am proud of you. Even Sesshomaru might have harmed the toad after his little rant had he been near."

"Why does he keep him around?" She asked with a faint scowl that faded when the elderly inuyoukai kissed her cheek and chuckled.

"Such a pretty face shouldn't be marred by a less favorable expressions. Hide your pain and hurt and anger, Kagome. Subversion is your greatest asset and I am certain that if you try, you might use such a skill to your advantage."

Kagome smiled and her eyes lit up with mischief. "So why does he keep him around?"

"Because he is very good at completing the tasks that the Taiyoukai does not wish to dirty his hands with."

"Like handling his concubines?" She asked, trying to practice subversion by fighting the sour expression threatening to capture her face.

"And visiting emissaries and other such things. Sesshomaru dislikes useless people or those with very little use he might use them for. Jaken possesses the unusual talent for making the very unimportant feel large and the entirely important feel very small. Such a skill, in many instances, is entirely useful to our taiyoukai and so he is loath to dispose of him." She said with an affectionate emotion overtaking her features. She had always thought of Sesshomaru as her own son, especially after his own mother had opted to return to her own lands on the continent and had left her son's rearing to his father and to Miyoko herself.

"So who does he entrust to your care, Miyoko?" She asked with a faint, coy smile kissing her lips.

The old woman chuckled and embraced the girl before her that she was rapidly claiming as another of her pups. She ran a hand through the long ebony tresses of the girl and sighed. "Come now. It's time for you to meet with your academic tutors and we will need to pull this lovely hair of yours back up where it belongs."

Kagome laughed and pulled back from Miyoko before nodding. "Alright. Thank the kami that I started having my 'lady' lessons in the mornings. I might go mad if I had to deal with them this late in the day."

Miyoko smiled and turned a knowing gaze up to the taiyoukai's balcony, clashing amber gazes together knowingly before returning to Kagome, helping her place her hair back up in the fine combs he'd had made for her.

Sesshomaru sighed lightly and stood after setting his cold cup down on the sill. He walked to his door and into the hall, intent on finding Isamu. Kagome's question touched the back of his mind and he suppressed a smile. Why had he called Miyoko out of her retirement in her country home with her countless descendants, both hanyou and inuyoukai, only to be the chambermaid, escort and nurse to his human ward? She was the only motherly figure he had ever known. Even his own mother could not be called a mother more than the bitch that had born him. Miyoko was precious to him. And he had asked her to protect Kagome and teach her and love her. He had watched the girl and realized that she was just that. A girl. No matter the fact that, in the human world, she would have already been wed and well on her way to becoming a mother. Kagome was only a girl and she needed her mother. He could not return her to her true mother. That would risk her purity and honor and he had claimed the right to defend her in both such aspects. However, that left him with the dilemma of a girl, his ward, who seemed lost without a loving, maternal presence.

He had traveled to Miyoko's home and had found her in her garden, gathering herbs and vegetables. She spoke without pause even before she turned to look at him.

"Ask me what it is you are going to ask me, Maru. I have supper to begin." She said with a warm but proprietary tone that was only enforced by the urgent look she gave him.

He smirked and leaned on the fence to the garden lightly. "How do you know I am going to ask you for something? Perhaps I missed you."

"If you missed me, you would have sent for me for a visit. Only requests on my person warrant you coming yourself. No more of your little games, Maru. Why are you here and what do you want from me?" Her words seemed harsh, but her tone, her gaze was warm and understanding. She could not abide useless prattle and preferred the heart of any matter presented to her.

He chuckled lightly and nodded. "Alright, Miyoko." He took her basket from her and walked with her into her home. "I have taken a human girl into my home as a ward. She claims to be fifteen but is pure though, from the clothing I found her in, she could have been no better than a whore. That aside, I took her honor as my particular priority and she is now mine to care for."

Miyoko cast an incredulous look onto the tall inuyoukai beside her. "What happened to your quest to find your father's sword and to best Inuyasha? You have never backed away from something once you have declared it your purpose."

"And I have not. I will have both objects of that particular desire in good time… Kagome is my concern at present." He sighed and shook his head at the tisking sound Miyoko was making.

"My, my, Maru. What a change in priorities." She stopped and met his gaze with one of her own piercing ones. "What aren't you telling me?"

He quirked his brow. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play me for a fool, Maru. I raised you."

He looked away in defeat, bowing to her lightly in acquiescence. "She was with Inuyasha. She pulled our father's sword from within his belly when I could not even touch it and Inuyasha could not make it budge. I… I tried to end her in my rage. I have never seen Inuyasha so… Overwhelmed. He was deadly for a moment. A man with nothing to lose. And then she stood and was alive when she should not have been. I do not know why, but I felt as if she was important. One who could claim my father's sword and was immune to my attack… I took her from Inuyasha to keep him calm and, because she was still holding the sword, to ensure that I was able to claim the weapon. I returned it to my brother on the caveat that he strengthen and master the weapon so we might duel and end the question of rulership once and for all."

She raised a brow and walked past him into the house and then into the kitchen. "You are playing a dangerous game, Maru."

"No, I am playing a very simple game with simple rules that will end in my favor."

"With Inuyasha, perhaps, but with this Kagome girl… Maru, have you even begun to consider why you have come to me to help care for her? I am assuming that is why you have come. You want someone to be her surrogate mother while you tend her, is that not so?"

He scowled. "Yes, but I do not see why…"

"Any number of others could have been chosen for the task, Maru. When I left, I told you the only reason I would return to your service was if you took a mate and she needed a chambermaid, midwife and nurse to your children." She said, taking the basket from him and began cleaning the vegetables and herbs within.

His scowl deepened to a furrowed frown. "She is not to be my mate."

"Then why have you come here?" She did not pause in her task even to meet his gaze.

"You do not believe me?" She would not acknowledge his presence, causing his temper to rise suddenly. "Look at me!"

She paused and fought back her smile before returning her gaze to the taiyoukai. "Yes?"

"She is not to be my mate. She is in need of one who can be a surrogate mother to her as she adjusts to life in the court. She is human and you are the only one I trust with her." He said with force as well as a control that sounded entirely strained.

Miyoko breathed out a long sigh and shook her head, smiling finally. "How much would you wish for me to protect her?"

"I do not understand." He replied, feeling his ire slowly dying away.

"She is on the cusp of womanhood, Maru. She will need to learn manners, poise, everything of youkai culture as well as how to maintain composure in any level of society if she is to be known as your ward as well as have her mind furthered academically and spiritually. I could keep her focused entirely on such pursuits, or I could also allow her some freedoms. Freedoms to discover herself. Freedoms to discover what she wants, even if that is not what you want. As your ward, she is subject to whatever pairing with whoever you choose once you feel she is ready. I could nurture such a future in her mind or I could allow her to decide her own fate."

"You speak of love." He murmured, feeling some bitterness rise. "Woman, such a thing is a fairy tale in this world."

"That you believe such a thing doesn't matter. What matters is that she might and I can either foster it or foster her priorities toward her duties to your will." She watched his features soften and smiled. "What is the taiyoukai's will?"

He felt something tighten in his chest momentarily and closed his eyes as he willed the pain away before he spoke again. He opened his eyes slowly and nodded to Miyoko. "Let her have her dreams and let me know of them so that, when I make a match for her, she might have what she wishes for."

Miyoko had arrived two days later and had not been separated from Kagome except when she slept and even then he wondered if she had not slept in the girl's room the first week in order to be there when she'd woken from the horrible nightmares that had begun to plague her in those first few days.

He found Isamu in the stables tending one of his horses that had hurt his hoof. They were youkai horses, capable of flying short distances and possessing great reserves of strength and stamina. Isamu bowed to the Taiyoukai.

"I have a request of you. I wish for you to teach Kagome to ride. She is to be taught on a human's horse and is not to leave the walls of the castle. I wish her to begin her training in the late afternoons before her supper and after her academic lessons."

"Pardon, my Lord, but is not your ward already burdened with her studies? She has very little time to herself as it is."

"Are you questioning me?" He asked with a quirked brow and an amused expression.

"Not you, Sir. I only worry for her."

"Do not worry yourself too much on it. She has expressed a desire to learn and the diversion might do her some good."

He nodded. "Yes, Sir."

Sesshomaru nodded and walked back to the gardens and the castle proper. Once he was within sight he saw Kagome and Miyoko waiting for him. He frowned as he noted the worried look on the old woman's face. "What is the trouble?"

"No trouble, Sesshomaru." Miyoko said, waving her hand slightly. "My great grand daughter is going into labor and I was sent word. Before I left, I told her that when she was due, she was to send for me so that she could have my expertise, for she is small and the labor will most likely be hard on her."

"How long would you need?" He asked, noting the sad but excited glint in his ward's gaze.

"A few days at most. She is nearby."

"Isamu is in the stables. Have him escort you there and take one of my horses so it will be a faster trip." He said casually, though his eyes sparkled slightly.

Miyoko smiled and turned to Kagome, brushing a stray lock of hair from her brow behind her ear. "You will be fine for a few days, little one. I will make sure your tutors are kind to you before I go and make sure that you do not trouble anyone."

She nodded and smiled, glowing slightly before embracing Miyoko gently. "I'll miss you."

The elderly inuyoukai chuckled and kissed her brow before pulling back. "Now I must go to my great grand daughter and you two should make your way to supper." She nodded to Sesshomaru and then patted Kagome's cheek before walking in the direction of the stables.

The girl sighed and he turned a sideways glance onto her. Her eyes were transfixed on Miyoko as she was walking away. 'Shall we in to supper, Kagome?"

She looked up suddenly and smiled a small, gentle smile that was both warm and sad. "Yes."

He turned and walked into the castle, knowing she would follow him directly. The entered the dining hall that had already been set for them, though a steward was removing Miyoko's plate from its place on Sesshomaru's right. The meal was eaten in relative silence for the greater part of it until the taiyoukai decided to speak.

"I have spoken to Isamu. He will be training you to ride on horseback in the next few days each afternoon before supper."

She looked up from her meal with a smile that was warmer and less sad than the one who had graced her lips in the gardens. "Thank you… I hope I am a better student to him than I am to my other tutors."

His stoic gaze did not falter but within he was nearly over brimming with mirth. "Kagome, you cannot expect to learn a life time of poise and etiquette in a matter of a few weeks or even a few months. It is true that your tutors are not as impressed with you in that area as you might wish them to be, but academically you have surpassed their expectations and with that I am quite pleased. You might even find Isamu to be a more patient teacher than your others."

"So… You aren't upset that I'm not…"

"Grace can be learned if practiced. Anything physical can be taught and learned if the pupil is willing to devote some effort to its mastery." He raised a brow slightly. "Not even this Sesshomaru was born with a working knowledge and proficiency with the sword or in battle. Patience is an important thing and, while your tutors show little in an effort to speed your learning, you will find I have an overabundance where your progress is concerned. If you were not so intelligent and well educated or showed no ability to learn whatsoever, such would not be the case."

"I see." She smiled a bit more brightly. "Sesshomaru?"

He studied her for a moment from the corner of his gaze before placing it entirely on her in question.

"When do you intend to find me… When do you intend to send me back to the human world?" Her voice was tenuous and trembling.

He fought back the smile that threatened to form. He honestly hadn't thought of who or where or when for a while. "When I see that you are ready and proficient. And when I am convinced you will not run back to the place whence you came from."

"Don't you trust me?" She asked, her eyes shimmering and her lip threatening a pout.

He'd seen this expression on her face before. She had used it on both Isamu and Miyoko at least once and both had folded to her whim. With Isamu, it was to meet his human mate. With Miyoko, it was so she could have a walk in the outer gardens. It had been the day she'd discovered his harem of concubines and they, in turn, had discovered her. Since that day he had found nothing but trouble with the females he called his property. In truth, he cared little for them and only visited them when his needs called to him more loudly than his duty to his land. They were gifts from visiting nobles or tribute and he had kept them out of obligation than any real desire to own them. All were skilled, beautiful and of some noble blood, but they annoyed him after a short span of time and so he had ensured they had adequate living quarters and servants at the far ends of the gardens where he could keep them out of sight unless he wanted or needed their company.

Kagome had said nothing of her little adventure in the gardens. Miyoko, however, had reported that once his concubines had finished their taunting of her and teasing her about her appearance, the girl had singed several of his concubine's hair clean away with her purification powers before running away in tears. He had sent Jaken to them every day since to appease them enough until he found time and desire to visit them. The thought was distasteful for him considering their actions toward his ward. He was displeased more with their actions than hers even though he had warned her about turning her powers against his staff, but in her defense, she had only been protecting her pride and he could not fault her for that. More than anything, he was afraid her fire had been dimmed. Her attempt at manipulation proved otherwise.

"I will trust you so far as you are able to prove that I should trust you. So far I trust you to practice and learn and to attempt to manipulate others into getting what you want." He noted the pout fade and quirked a lip as she fought to hide the building anger that flooded her aura with red. He stood and bowed to her slightly. "I have certain things to attend, Kagome. You should return to your room to rest."

She stood, her anger suddenly gone. "Where are you going?"

He did not respond but stared at her with a sharp gaze.

She shuddered but did not back down. It was the part of her that intrigued him most. Her spirit and fearless gall. "Did you forget how to speak?"

"Have you forgotten your place?" He asked in a level tone and noticed with some amusement that her temper flared again, but that she was hiding it well. He turned to look to the outer door. "You are here because of my will and desire. If it so pleases me, you will stay. If your presence ceases to bring me pleasure, Kagome, do not question that I will dispatch you either to another youkai or to death."

She blinked twice and then turned her gaze away from him. Her rage had died as quickly as it had flared. "I'm sorry… Excuse me." She murmured and left the dining hall before he gave her permission to leave.

He sighed deeply once she was gone, then exited through the outer door and began the short walk to the far edge of the gardens. He had a group of unruly, though beautiful women to tend.

She slipped into her room after nearly running down the halls and falling twice before pulling her kimono up to her calves. Once there she closed her door and tore the beautiful combs from her hair, letting them drop to the floor before removing the many layers of fabric except for the silken yukata that clung to her form suggestively. She fell onto her bed and pressed her face into the thick comforter, shaking in rage and sadness. After a moment she turned her head and let her tears soak into the fabric beneath her with her hair pooled around her in strands of liquid night.

It was hard enough being away from her mother indefinitely and then for Miyoko to have left her, even for a few days, but Sesshomaru's words had hurt and frightened her. What was more, she knew where he was going. To those awful women who had been so cruel to her. He'd not even said a word about her actions against them. She could only guess why and she guessed that it was more because he hadn't decided how to dispose of her yet… Now she figured that to be a truth rather than a supposition. But Miyoko wouldn't let him send her away or give her to some other youkai that might eat her, would she? Maybe that was why he'd allowed her to leave. So that she wouldn't be around to object.

She sat up slowly and pushed her hair away from her face and walked to a mirror and began scrutinizing herself. If she were home in her time she might have been considered exotic with slightly European features. It was true that in her family history there was at least one member that was not Japanese or of any Asian descent. That was how she accounted for her differences. Even for the strangeness of her eyes. However, five hundred years in the past, she was only strange and different, not exotic. Not even remotely beautiful compared to the women she'd seen at the furthest boundaries of the gardens. His women.

"I don't understand." She whispered and sighed as she returned to sit on her bed. She looked at her hands and then closed her eyes only to lie back entirely onto the soft mattress. "He won't keep me here even once I have learned what I need to learn and gained his trust enough that he feels he can entrust me to another. So why does it bother me? Why does it bother me that he has concubines and can so easily… Discredit me and disregard me? I'm not some sort of spoiled child… But aside from Miyoko, he's the only one steady in my life here. Not even Inuyasha was so steady in the short time I was with him." She opened her eyes and looked to the beautiful planked ceiling, focusing on the grain of the wood. "Maybe that's it… He's the only one I have to hold onto. Even Miyoko can be sent away at his whim… And so when he isn't steady, my whole world feels like it's toppling down. And there's no escaping his world…" _And I am afraid because I don't think I really want to… I only miss my family. Not the world they live in._

He paused while he was still a distance away from the concubine's house and looked back to the palace with a faint scowl. For the first time in a solid century, he regretted his words and actions. He'd frightened her and, instead of a fiery retort, she had folded and retreated. He shook himself internally and returned to his trek to his desired course. His mind should be on anything else. Anything or anyone but her.

------

She scowled and looked at the clay husk that sat before her. She was hollow. Hollow and alive but without a soul. She stepped forward and scrutinized every aspect of the recreation. "You should be here… In this clay form. Where are you, Kikyo? You should have been centuries from rebirth and yet I cannot call your soul."

She stood and left the cave where the living clay creature sat naked still within the fires and turned an aged eye to the skies. She sensed her servant, Enju, approach. "Did it not work?"

Urasue did not respond at first. "Go and summon Kawaramaru to me. Tell him he must be ready for a quest."

The girl nodded and turned to find her mistress' clay general. Urasue sighed and looked back into the cave at the glowing, living clay golem of the priestess, Kikyo, as the fires heated her so much that she began to crumble away. If she was able to locate her reborn soul, she would create another body to house her soul, however, until then, it was not necessary and she would harvest the burnt clay from the fires later for reuse.

Miles away, an elderly woman knelt at her sister's grave, praying for the girl, Kagome. That she was safe. Inuyasha had not returned once since he had lost her to his brother. He had become a man possessed. Perhaps it was best that he never know that Kikyo's grave was disturbed. Perhaps it was the best thing. In the morning, she would have some of the men from the village resettle her grave and ashes as well as they could be. The soul had been reborn and knowing this, Kaede found that the grave was less important than the life that her sister had gained in her reincarnation.


	3. Crossing Linear Progressions

Traversing the Ether of Dreams 

Part Three

Crossing Linear Progressions

Every point follows a linear progression from its beginning into the future and into the past that created it. Its vector and any consequent algorithm or logarithm that diverts its progress to its next point of contact with another line extending from another point of destiny decides its course. In nature, all actions have consequences and progressions to their ultimate destinations. Chaos. Nothing can be fully determined from the beginning point, and so, the course of a line, the path of a life, is a mystery except to the factors, which affect and guide its progression. That chaos we call the divine.

The power of mystic fire and storm crashed together in agonizing waves. With every torrent of power he unleashed, he screamed as his flesh burnt with his own strength. But he was winning. He was avenging his father and he was doing it on his own. No, not alone. Not really. He had help and, more and more, as he felt the hellish waves of power fueled by the shards of the Shikon no Tama that he had embedded in his small hands, he realized that the help he was receiving came from a deal with a true demon from the very bowls of hell itself.

The Thunder Brothers fell together in a pool of blood and clumps of their own smoldering flesh. He cried out in pain and joy, tears coursing down his cheeks and into the earth. He could barely hold himself up on his hands and knees, he was so weak.

"You are a very brave young kitsune, Shippo." The voice was cool and dark. The kind of dank dark that one might expect in a dungeon or rank cave. "But you are still weak. Let me share some more of my power…"

"No… Lord Naraku, please!" His voice broke and he cried out as malevolent dark energy poured into his shards. His small body convulsed and began to grow in size, a process that should have occurred in a decade or more, not then while his spiritual power was still in its infancy.

"We made a deal, Shippo. I would share my jewel shards with you so you could avenge your father and you would serve me unquestioningly. The only way you can be a good servant is if you are no longer a child." He said and smirked as he watched the small kitsune transform before him. His screams became the deep groans of a fully-grown man, naked and curled around the tattered remains of his clothing. Once he was completely transformed, Naraku let the energy subside and threw armor and clothing at the man's feet. "You will clean yourself and dress. I will await you at my castle."

He shuddered and sat up slowly. His rusty red hair fell in curls around his shoulders, down his torso and onto his lap. "Yes, Lord Naraku." He murmured in a broken, deep voice of a man. He had his revenge. His father could rest in peace. But he had sacrificed his childhood to see it come about… And he had sacrificed his freedom.

------

"How the hell am I supposed to use this? It's a rusty old sword and a flaking apart scabbard… Not the legendary weapon that Myoga talked about." The hanyou scowled at his companion, the monk, Miroku who was looking at the vial of shards they had collected. Myoga had found the monk as he had been defeating his first demon to begin gathering shards. Had the flea not gotten to him and spoken to him first, he might have tried to kill Inuyasha instead of speaking to him. "How many we got again?"

"Ten. I sense at least four more, perhaps as many as six to the North." He replied as he placed the purified shards into his robe. It had taken hours of praying over the shards to make their energies so pure.

"Wolf country." He scowled and snarled faintly. "Dirty mongrels."

Miroku could not help but chuckling. "The mighty Inuyasha? Afraid of a few wolves?"

"Not afraid." He snarled, and then smirked. "I just ain't too fond of getting fleas. Myoga's bad enough as it is, but at least he usually asks before he vamps me." He turned his gaze to the monk. "Are you sure they're up there?"

He nodded. "I meditated and scryed for them for nearly two days, Inuyasha, as you well remember."

"Well, then we go that way." He said begrudgingly and so the unlikely pair turned to the North and the promise it held of more shards.

They had barely traveled a mile before Inuyasha paused, his hackles rising as a low growl ripped from his chest.

Miroku studied his friend and ally with a deep frown. "What is it?"

"Blood. And wolves. They're attacking humans." As soon as the words left his lips, the two men were racing toward the scent. They came upon a small clearing just outside a town where a small hut had been built. A woman was screaming where she crouched, trying to hide something behind some sacks near the entrance of the hut. A man was being ripped to pieces by a pack of wolves while a wolf youkai looked on with a deranged sneer on his handsome face. Dark, ebony locks flew around his face from the high pony tail he had it held in and his piercing, sky blue eyes watched the carnage with a kind of delight before he raced forward with an uncommon and unnatural speed, even for a youkai. He grabbed the woman by her hair and laughed.

"Stop screaming." He snarled and then grabbed her throat in his teeth, tearing the vital tendons, muscle and arteries away so that her blood poured down her arms in a rush. She was still within an instant.

Inuyasha snarled and drew his sword without thinking. He had barely drawn the rusted old blade once since it had been placed in his hands by Isamu. It seemed useless and had been so until that point. However, something had caused him to draw it at the sight of the couple being rended so callously by the wolves. And then he saw her. The girl, barely seven or eight years old, huddled behind the sacks, her eyes wide as she watched her family die. He had to save her. The sword transformed.

The wolf youkai looked up and sneered before he dropped the corpse of the woman. "A filthy hanyou and another snack for my pack? I'll take pleasure in destroying you both before I feast on the little tid-bit that's hiding in a pool of her mother's blood."

Inuyasha smiled darkly as he gripped the hilt of his sword. "You'll try."

The two warriors clashed as Miroku began attacking the wolves so they could not advance on the girl. The battle was swift and fierce so that any onlooker would have only seen the blur of claws and blade parrying, striking and dodging. The girl remained huddled beside her mother, her eyes focused intently on the battle before her. The flash of snowy white and red, red like blood… Like the blood on her pale, pale hands. She began to weep, covering her face with her stained palms.

Inuyasha focused on the wolf and his energies in an attempt to anticipated his next move. He was obviously imbued with the power of at least one shard or else he wouldn't be so quick or strong. Wolf youkai were notoriously weak without their packs. As he focused on the energies of his opponent, he saw a tear in the shifting of the air, almost like a scar. He smirked and aimed the power he could feel coursing through the sword at that weakened place, causing a horrible burst of energy that tore through the surprised wolf, rending him from the world before he had an instant to register that he'd been defeated by a filthy hanyou.

The wolves departed in fear, leaving the hanyou and monk in the field across from the small girl weeping over her dead mother with the disintegrating corpse of the wolf youkai leaving behind three partially tainted shards. Miroku collected them quickly and watched with faint surprise as Inuyasha approached the girl silently.

She couldn't have been older than seven. Perhaps eight. She was so small and simply drenched in blood. He felt his heart churn as he remembered weeping over the corpse of his own mother for days. Had they not come along, had the wolf had his fill and left her there, how long would the child have remained weeping there, alone and utterly forgotten by the world? He knelt beside her and reached out gently to touch her. The child did not flinch, she simply looked up at him in sorrow and a horrible kind of acceptance that he knew no child should ever have to understand. Her face was covered in her mother's blood, transferred from her palms, but it was cut through with harsh tears that ran in rivers down her chin.

"I won't hurt you." He whispered so very gently it sounded foreign to his own ears. He drew the weeping child into his arms, discarding the transformed Tessaiga beside him, and let her weep into his chest. Something within him began to hold the girl along with the strength of his arms. Devotion unlike anything he had known before filled him. He could not leave her alone and he would not leave her with the village. He had saved her and she was now his responsibility. He lifted her into one arm and sheathed his sword with the other before cradling her against him. He walked to a slightly confused monk and nodded softly. "She will stay with us, Miroku. She has no one now and I trust no one to protect her."

"Inuyasha… She might have other family. Do you even know her name?" He asked, knowing that the answer didn't matter to the hanyou who held the girl so tightly.

"They couldn't protect her like I can." He breathed, and then frowned as some of his senses returned to him. He gently guided the girl's gaze to his with one hand. "Do you have any family?"

Her eyes welled with tears again and she shook her head before burying her face into his shoulder and weeping again. He cast an annoyed look at the monk and Miroku nodded with a solemn bowing of his head. "She hasn't got anybody… Except me now… Except us."

The hanyou walked away and Miroku rushed into the house, gathering some clean clothing for the small girl along with a doll he found on a small futon. He sighed and looked around and also took a carved wooden set of combs that had to have been her mothers as well as a dagger that was most likely her father's. She deserved to have something of her family. He tied the belongings into a satchel and took it to Inuyasha who had found a nearby spring for the girl to wash herself clean of blood.

"I will go and burry her parents, Inuyasha. Keep an eye on her." He said softly, trying not to upset the rather dazed looking girl who had begun to wash her face in the water.

Inuyasha nodded slightly. "Hurry about it. I want to get as far away as we can from this place and on to find more shards."

"There are several more further north." He said and watched the hanyou nod before he turned and made his way back to the clearing.

"Then that's where we'll go." Inuyasha murmured and turned from the girl so she could have some privacy while she washed and dressed herself in the clothing Miroku had brought for her.

Once she had dressed and Miroku returned from burying her parents, Inuyasha cradled the girl in his arms again and began walking north once more. As night fell, they decided to make camp. Miroku pulled some food he'd taken from the house out of his own satchel and cooked it over the fire, watching where the girl remained curled against the hanyou, clinging to him fiercely.

"What is your name, child?" He asked in a soft, silky baritone.

The girl looked up slowly and trembled. She opened her mouth, and then closed it, still silent from the shock of losing her parents. She trembled again and drew her knees to her chest, covering her eyes almost shamefully.

"It's ok, kid." He whispered and ran a clawed hand through her hair as she began to cry again. "You don't got to talk until you're ready, ok? My name's Inuyasha and that guy over there's Miroku. We're lookin for shards of something called the Shikon no Tama. It's this jewel a friend of mine broke on accident." He reached out and Miroku handed him the vial filled with all of the shards they had collected including the ones from the wolf youkai. He put the vial in the girl's hands and both men watched in amazement as they began to glow with a pure, warm light. "How'd you… Kid, did you do that on purpose?"

She whimpered and shook her head, holding the vial out to Miroku again before beginning to cry once more. "No, no, it's alright, Little One." The monk said, moving toward her to caress her tear stained cheek. "It's ok. It takes me nearly a full day of meditation to get them that pure. You helped us."

Her smile snuck out suddenly and it seemed to warm both of them simply with it's presence. Inuyasha smirked and hugged the girl gently, startled by how much her warmth reminded him of Kagome. "We'll have t'give you the shards every time we find another one so we can make sure they're purified. Can you sense them? Their power, I mean."

She frowned, focusing, then shook her head dejectedly. Miroku smiled softly and patted her hand. "Just that you can purify them is enough. Perhaps when you are a bit older you can train and refine this gift of yours."

The child smiled faintly and then curled back against Inuyasha. After they had eaten, they settled down for the night. Inuyasha had wrapped the girl in his fire-rat haori and then had jumped up into the branches of a tree to overlook the camp for the night. The girl had begrudgingly released him. She had woken several times in the night and, finally, Inuyasha had given in and allowed her to curl up against him in the branches. When morning broke he looked down to find the child looking up at him with a soft smile. He quirked a brow at her in question and she smiled a bit brighter, but he could still see the sorrow and loss in her gaze.

"Rin… My name is Rin."

------

He really was impressed. Before him were the corpses of several demon slayers. They had fought valiantly against the one who had attacked them. The youngest of them, he thought the girl had called him Kohaku, had been controlled through spindle threads of power by him and now the only ones who had any life left in them were the boy he had controlled and the girl who had fought so passionately to save her brother's life. She never wavered. She never paused. She would be a valuable ally, he had decided, and by saving her brother, with the promise of finding vengeance for her family, she would be a very valuable tool.

Yet, he could not take chances on her free will. Ordering some of his servants to bring the two to his chambers, he pulled from his robes two shards of the Shikon no Tama. He placed one in the back of the boy as well as in the back of the girl. And then, after they had been cleaned and placed in their own rooms, he waited by the girl's bedside for her to wake.

It did not take long. Her eyes fluttered open and looked at him with a broken, frightened gaze. He decided rather quickly that he would not control her through the jewel unless he absolutely had to. Controlling her would take that beautiful, pained expression from her face and replace it with hollowness. He reached out gently and touched her hand. "You must not be afraid of me. My name is Kagewaki and, after the death of my father who had been possessed by a demon, I am now lord of this castle… I am sorry for the death of your fellow demon slayers…"

"They were… My family…" She breathed, gasping softly as tears began to overwhelm her. She shuddered as Kagewaki gripped her hand and looked up into his rather handsome face, meeting his soft brown eyes that were filled with worry.

"I have arranged for them to be sent back to your village, but you and the boy… I assume he is your brother?"

"Kohaku is alive?" She sat up suddenly and cried out as the pain in her back ripped through her. He helped her lay back down gently, frowning. "I have to see him…"

"He has not woken yet, though my healers are hopeful he will make a full recovery, as will you. But you both must rest." When she nodded he smiled faintly. "I would hope you and your brother would stay here until you are completely healed."

"I cannot… Our village has been left nearly unprotected. We must go as soon as we are even remotely able."

He nodded, disappointment in his gaze, but then his eyes sparkled slightly. "I will send some of my guards there to help protect it until you are more fully recovered. Please… I'm sorry, I do not even know your name."

She blushed faintly at the sparkle in his eyes and the faint but sad smile kissing his lips. "Sango… My name is Sango. And… I would be more than grateful if you would do so… I cannot find a way to thank you."

"Call me your friend, Lady Sango." He said softly, slowly releasing her hand, allowing their fingers to linger together. "And let me help heal the horrible wounds you and your brother have sustained. Though it may not seem a consolation, your family came to fight and allowed me freedom of will long enough to kill the demon that possessed my father. It is a hollow thought… But know that your family is avenged."

She smiled though more tears slipped down her cheeks. She felt exhaustion overtake her. "Tell me… Tell me when Kohaku awakens…"

"I will, Lady Sango. You should sleep." He whispered and reached out to brush away some of her tears.

She trembled and met his eyes pleadingly. "I do not want to be alone…"

"You are not and will never be. Have faith, Lady Sango." When she nodded, he took her hand again. "I will stay with you until you fall asleep. Do not be afraid. No one will harm you here."

He watched her fall asleep and smiled darkly to himself before standing and leaving her. He informed his guards to take the bodies of the deceased demon slayers to their village and guard the place. The humans were loyal to him and did not question his reasoning. For fifty years, he had lived within the castle, taking possession of father and son each generation to retain his hiding place. Once he had given his order to his guards, he walked to the balcony of his bedroom and reached out for Shippo. The kitsune appeared a few moments later from the shadows, bowing low to him and falling to one knee.

"What is your bidding, Lord Naraku?" He asked softly, keeping his eyes fixed to the floor.

"Go out and tell the lesser youkai of the area surrounding the demon village that it is no longer protected. They will want their revenge." When the kitsune looked up in shock, he chuckled darkly. "Do as I tell you, Shippo." He reached out through the shard and sent pain through his minion's body. The young kitsune tensed in his newly acquired warrior's body. "Do as I say."

He shuddered and nodded. "Y-yes… Lord Naraku."

He chuckled as the kitsune fled his sight, slipping into the shadows. He did not yet have enough shards to create proper incarnations, but his servants would do well enough at present. Inuyasha was in search of the shards with the descendant of the monk he had cursed little less than half a century before. He would deal with the blasted hanyou in time. The current task was to gather as many shards as he could and the kitsune and the two slayers would be a great help in doing so… Once he had the demon slayer's allegiance that was. From Sango he wanted more than her allegiance. Something about her intrigued him in the same way Kikyo had intrigued Onigumo and, while it delighted him to have his thoughts torn from the blasted miko after so many decades, it bothered him that he could be distracted at all.

------

It was nearly the winter. He could smell the snow in the air as it built within the dark clouds overhead even before it fell and the chill became the herald of hard months to come. He was only glad the food stores were well maintained for both the palace and the land surrounding him. While, as a rule, youkai and humans did not mix society, there were several human villages within the boundaries of his lands that were several days' reach from the protection of their human Lords. Sesshomaru had found great disfavor with watching humans starve and freeze when he could help them, though he did not make his interference well known. He kept reasonably close, secret relations with the village magistrates and, for his care of them; they became loyal allies willing to help him within human society whenever there was need. Though Sesshomaru owned extensive lands, he did not own the whole western area of Japan. His responsibilities, however, were to all youkai within those lands to govern, reward and punish as the case called for. His laws, while firm, were easy to uphold for a youkai with scruples. Those being few and far between, the Western Lands were found to be populated primarily with kitsune and inuyoukai as well as the few other youkai breeds that preferred closer and more peaceful relationships with humans.

The most important of his laws was simply that youkai not maliciously harm humans or disturb their daily lives. There was a tenuous enough relationship between the two worlds and Sesshomaru refused to be the trigger that caused a war. It was for his care that demon slayers avoided his lands, did not usually slay his kind or his men if they crossed, why religious leaders and their followers had more temples within his realm that were stable and powerful, and why the human Lords within his realm often sent gifts of thanks and friendship in the form of fine horses, both trained for riding and in warfare, beautiful silks and hand woven rugs from the continent they had acquired in their trade.

Kagome had lived in his home and by his side for nearly six months. Her progress academically was so great that he felt a great deal of pride when she surpassed several of her youkai tutors and he was forced to send for more learned teachers to further her education and eager mind. She had begun writing volumes of works of poetry, philosophy and fanciful stories that, through Miyoko, he had found himself privileged to read. Her talent for writing both astonished him and brought him great pleasure, though he never expressed as much to her. Her progress in poise and manners, however, were slow and frustrating for her, though he never voiced any displeasure for he had none. Was she as graceful as the most well bred lady or concubine he had the fortune of meeting? No. She had a long way to go before she could even be considered marginally proficient in the task of being a Lady, however her other virtues more than made up for the areas in which she was lacking.

Though he could not express openly to her his pride in her accomplishments or else risk the contempt of the court and his youkai allies in the other lands, he sought other ways to reward her. Her room was decorated with the fine rugs and tapestries, paintings and furniture he often received in tribute. Her clothing was made only from the finest selections of silk that he was given and even some he intentionally purchased from the mainland in a particularly pleasing shade of lavender he could not find on the islands. The most telling gift he had given to her to express his pleasure in her progress had been given once Isamu had reported to him that she was proficient in her lessons of horseback riding. The Taiyokai had been surprised that she had learned such a physical lesson so quickly. With her rather slow progress in grace and poise, he had incorrectly assessed that she would be found more often than not thrown from her horse or complaining of aching muscles because of an inability to fall into rhythm with her mount. He was pleasantly proven wrong and theorized that it was because, while Kagome had difficulty containing her passions and energies in the pursuit of grace, riding required her to focus those energies more outward and in an active, rather than controlled, way.

Sesshomaru had gone to one of the local magistrates whose village had sent him some of the finest horses that he had ever had in his stables. The village was one that many great cavalry soldiers came out of and, part of that, no doubt, was due to their love and skill with horses. He had asked the magistrate to train the most intelligent stallion he had, for Sesshomaru was certain a gelding or mare would not have the required spirit to match Kagome's fiery soul, as a riding horse who also had some training in war maneuvers so that, if, kami forbid, Kagome found herself in an unexpected and violent situation while she was out riding, the horse would not startle and throw her. The bay stallion had been sent to the palace two months later on the cusp of autumn.

Sesshomaru had noted, with the help of the perceptive and ever present Miyoko as well as Isamu's observations during Kagome's riding lessons, that the girl had become unusually careful and afraid when she made a mistake. Miyoko had once even conveyed that, during a lesson in poise when Kagome had made a mistake and been severely chided by her tutor, she had broken down into tears, which had only made her tutor even more sever on her. Later, when the girl had calmed, she had asked Miyoko if Sesshomaru would send her away if she failed much more in her studies. He'd been startled and had begun pacing in his agitation.

Miyoko watched him calmly and then raised a brow when he stopped and kicked a table across the room where it smashed to bits against a wall. "Something vexes you, Maru?"

He snarled faintly and looked down at his tense, clawed hands. "She is afraid of me."

The elderly woman laughed and he growled, causing her to laugh even more. "Forgive me, Maru, but isn't that something you wanted? You instill fear of you in everyone around you, including your own concubines. Even Isamu and your elite force fears you on a deep level, though it has morphed into deep respect and loyalty over the years. I believe I am the only person in this whole palace who holds no fear of you and, once, that would have brought you pleasure. Why does it not now?"

He slowly calmed and evened his breath, but he could not meet Miyoko's gaze no matter how he tried. "When I found her… Took her from my worthless brother, I learned that I could both terrify her and calm her within the span of only a few moments and… I found both brought me the same surge of delight. As I have learned her… Come to know her, I find that the balances tip so that I only find pleasure in her joy and contentment… I cannot abide her fear of me and I wish that she would not cry… Because of me. She is all fire and life and the good parts of humanity."

She tilted her head and waited for him to meet her eyes. There was neither mirth nor reproach in her gaze, only the faint shimmer of pride. "Maru… I know you fear your father's fate. I know you rail against it and fight your heart, but… Inuyoukai, since the dawn of time, have been the companions of humanity. They are only strong when they stand together. The inuyoukai give humanity strength and support and they… They give us purpose and direction. Inu no Taisho was my friend. All he ever wanted was for you to understand your own strength. He loved his sons and, I believe from the afterlife, he looks onto them both and hopes they will come to understand the well of their true power… Love."

"I do not…"

"Don't lie to me, pup." She said with sudden vehemence. She stood and walked up to him, grabbing his ear hard so the tall Taiyokai was forced to look into her eyes levelly. "Never lie to me."

He bit back the yelp that was threatening to escape, but could not curtail the whimpering whine that slipped through his chest. He looked down and away from her, going to one knee in an attempt to relieve some of the pain her hold on his ear was causing. "If I love her, they will come for me… They will see my weakness and use her against me and I will not… I cannot watch her die and I will not leave her alone."

She sighed and released his ear, gently cradling the fearsome inuyoukai in an embrace. He rested his head against her abdomen and waited for her to speak, uncaring that he looked like a pup and was still whining softly like one as his arms encircled the closest person he had to him in the whole of his life. "She is still young. She is still a child no matter the fact that a girl of her age would normally be a wife on the way toward motherhood in the human world. Yes, she fears you, but it is the fear of a girl who believes you see her as an obligation readily shed. She wants to care for you, but she is afraid you will send her away and her heart will be broken. Whether you love her or simply care for her well being, you at least should allow her to know that she shouldn't fear you or being sent away since it causes you so much turmoil."

He nodded faintly and stood slowly as his whine subsided. He looked down and met Miyoko's gaze. "What can I do to silence her fear?"

She smiled faintly and traced one of the bright magenta stripes along his cheek. "That, my beloved pup, is entirely up to you to decide. I will try to quell what I can, but in the end it will be your gesture that brings her confidence. It's your will that keeps her here, little Maru. You must find a way to help her understand that your will is that she never leave."

A few weeks later, he had called Kagome to the stables. She had come with Miyoko, her head bent down in respect, but he could smell her fear. His stomach tightened in displeasure, but he ensured that it did not show. He regretted every time he had enforced that she remained in his palace and alive only on his good will. He regretted ever attempting to frighten her. "Kagome."

She looked up suddenly, her eyes shimmering faintly. Isamu stood a short distance away, tending to the new bay stallion that had been brought. She swallowed softly before speaking. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?"

Isamu frowned, hearing the tremble in her voice. She was normally so fiery and alive when she was around him or Miyoko. She laughed, joked and was playful and mischievous. He looked at her like a sister and knew that Miyoko considered her to be a daughter or granddaughter. It bothered him to see her so afraid of their Lord when he knew very well Sesshomaru would never harm her or send her away. Kagome could simply not believe it, especially after the inuyoukai had threatened to do just that.

He frowned internally but did not allow the expression to touch his mask. "Isamu has told me that you have come very far in your riding lessons. I wish to give you something to show you that I am pleased in your progress." He motioned to the bay, which Isamu brought to her. She reached up and tentatively caressed the beautiful creature that gently nuzzled into her hand. She trembled and gently pressed her cheek into the stallion's neck as tears assaulted his senses. He allowed himself to express his displeasure with the slightest frown and tension crept into his voice. "Why must you cry? I have given you a gift…"

"He isn't really mine." She whispered but did not look at him. "Nothing is really mine… You could take everything away and send me away…"

He snarled and grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn to him. She sobbed but would not look at him. "You think this? That I would promise a gift to you and then take it away? That I would be so cruel?" She would not look up at him and the inaction was as stinging as if she had slapped him. He sighed and loosened his grip on her arm but did not release her. He took her other shoulder and held her there. "Kagome, please look at me when I speak to you." Slowly she looked up and met his gaze with glassy, tear filled eyes. "He is yours. The clothing and furniture and art are yours. Your room is yours until you are prepared to leave this place and I will not send you away until that time. Nor will I send Miyoko or Isamu away. I should never have made you believe that you were here only for your usefulness or to the whim of my will. I have taken you into my home, Kagome. I have given you a place and have made your honor my own and, even if you did displease me, no amount of displeasure would cause me to be so dishonorable as to send you away from here. Away from me."

"I'm trying… I am trying…" She sobbed out, then stilled when he reached out and brushed away her tears. "I don't want to leave… I want to stay here with you. This is my home now, please don't ever send me away."

His eyes widened almost imperceptibly, then darted to Miyoko who was smiling faintly. Apparently there had been something the old inuyoukai bitch had kept from him when he had specifically asked her to share the girl's wishes with him. He looked back to the girl and saw the hope in her eyes and sighed faintly, allowing the tension to leave him. There was only Isamu and Miyoko to hold any witness of what he would do next, though neither would ever forget what they saw. He leaned and gently kissed Kagome's brow, causing her to gasp softly and reach up to grasp his wrists almost possessively. He sent a soft pulse of energy through her, marking her almost imperceptibly with his life force so that, if anyone with even a slight spiritual power attempted to harm her, they would know that she belonged to him and was his family and he, in turn, would know that she was in danger. He drew back and met her gaze again, noting new tears on her cheeks, but a smile gracing her lips and some of her old fire returning to glimmer in her eyes. "I won't ever send you away. You have my word, Kagome. This is your home."

She glowed softly and her eyes flared. "Thank you."

He nodded and gently released her and she, reluctantly, released him. He looked to the stallion that had begun nudging at Kagome for attention. "You should name him."

She smiled and brushed at her eyes absently before gently stroking the stallion's mane. "Maru… It means beloved." She whispered softly, though her voice held a soft reverence that sent warmth through him in ways he had never experienced before. He had to restrain himself from reaching out to caress her long tendrils of ebony night that had not been captured in her bun.

"Lord Sesshomaru, Kagome and I will be taking our ride now." He turned from his window and memories to look on Isamu who stood in his open doorway.

"She is dressed warmly enough?" He asked with a simple inflection that Isamu knew well to indicate the stoic Taiyoukai's affections.

He nodded and bowed. "She is finishing now. Would you like me to bring her to you before we go?"

He shook his head. "It is not necessary. The wind is chilled and the sky smells of snow. It should hold for another day, but I do not wish to be proven wrong at the expense of her health."

Isamu smiled faintly and nodded. "My Lord…"

He raised a brow at the smile. "Yes?"

"Since the Southern Lord is coming for talks next week, Miyoko and I wished to ask permission to keep the girl with my mate until he leaves. For her sake as much as yours. You know that the dragon youkai, as a rule, hate humans as much as they do our kind. Even though you have a tentative peace with him, Kagome would still be in danger if he chose to dislike her."

"I know this…"

"So… May I take her and Miyoko to my home to stay with my mate?"

He paused and contemplated a palace devoid of his ward and sighed inwardly. It would be quiet. But she would be safe. "Yes. But do not tell her why. Let her believe it is a vacation… An outing for her pleasure and not for her own safety."

"My Lord… If ever there comes a day that you wish her present when the other Lords come for talks… Know that you have your elite warrior's support entirely. I speak for us all, Lord Sesshomaru. We are yours until death and would protect her as if her life were yours."

He processed Isamu's words slowly and looked away before nodding. "I appreciate such knowledge, Isamu… Go, Kagome will be waiting for her ride. Take care she is back by supper this time."

Isamu smirked faintly and nodded before bowing and leaving Sesshomaru to his thoughts. Several moments later, the Taiyoukai watched his ward ride out with Isamu through the gates and out into the forests. She was not allowed to go out alone. She believed it was because he did not trust her, but, in truth, it was because he feared for her safety. He knew she would not run. Not now. Not when he knew she wanted to stay and was afraid of ever being forced to leave him. And he… He was terrified of ever losing her to the world or time. Her fire filled him in ways and places he had not been aware existed before and, for the first time since he was a child, the icy Lord Sesshomaru found he believed in what had so long been only a fantasy and the object of his scorn. Lord Sesshomaru believed in love.


	4. Ribbons of the Divine

Traversing the Ether of Dreams 

Part Four

A Ribbon of the Divine

Once, when humanity still believed in heaven and god in a uniform, if not in varied and distinct forms, blanket of faith, a man theorized that the distance between all objects was filled with the energy of the divine. He called this ocean of spiritual power ether and supposed that, if one could find a method, they could traverse the space between worlds, time and any other distance. Perhaps even in dreams. Decades later he was proven wrong. Beyond the atmosphere of earth there is nothing but void between celestial bodies. Nothing but black, cold, embracing lack where heaven should have been. But, perhaps, on some level he was right. Perhaps, within the shell of life giving cloud and air on this planet we call home, there is ether. Pieces of the ethereal. Pathways between hearts. Heaven on earth.

Her laughter was like music. He only wished his Lord could hear her when she was at her happiest. When joy coursed through her heart like her lifeblood, pumping through the whole of her form, nourishing her soul. He chased after her as she rode ahead of him, allowing her to believe that she might win. The girl was like a sister to him and seeing her so happy, so filled with pride that she might actually win their race down to the small lake they enjoyed visiting every afternoon, brought him the same sort of pride that fatherhood had brought to his heart when he had looked on his sons and mate.

As they rounded the turn, he decided that he would let her win this time. He wanted to see if her joy was any greater in winning than in losing for the simple pleasure of the race. As the pure blue came into sight, he noted the soft tinkle of her laughter became more breathy and awed in anticipation. A soft smile touched his lips as she came to a halt near the bank of the lake, only to turn Maru and look back at him with bright, wide and blue eyes that sparkled like the lake itself. He chuckled and rode up beside her.

"Well done, Kagome." He said, pride resonating in his voice. "You and Maru are almost one, you move so well."

She blushed faintly and laughed, though her eyes sparkled with light that he couldn't place. No, he could place that specific light, however he had only ever seen it in his mate's eyes when they had first met and had fallen in love. She dismounted carefully and led Maru to some grass. "He is a good horse. Lord Sesshomaru chose well."

"As it was told to me, he instructed the magistrate to choose the most intelligent stallion to be paired with you, Kagome." He said softly and dismounted his own horse. He watched her as she ran her fingers through Maru's mane almost reverently. "I have asked my Lord if I could take you for a visit to my home to stay there with my mate and children and Miyoko…"

"It's because the southern Lord is coming, isn't it?"

His eyes widened slightly, but he quickly regained his composure when her gaze turned to him. "What makes you think such a thing?"

She laughed and waved her hand softly at him in dismissal. "Isamu… I'm not some idiot child. I've read through most of Lord Sesshomaru's library and Miyoko and my tutors have been teaching me about youkai society and the dispositions of each breed… The southern Lord is a dragon youkai and, if I am not mistaken, they hate humans only slightly more than inuyoukai. In fact, I have heard stories that many human Lords pay tribute to dragon youkai in the form of human servants and prisoners of war."

"Neither my Lord, nor I or Miyoko wished for you to be upset and feel put out, Kagome."

"I don't." She smiled sadly to him and sighed before turning back to Maru and petting between his ears. "I don't want to be a burden to Lord Sesshomaru. That is my only sadness."

He nodded faintly and studied her closely before speaking. "Surely you know he does not think of you in such a way. You are more than a ward to him, Kagome. You are a part of his household… He marked you as his family."

"Whether he thinks of me in such a way or not does not change the fact of whether or not I am a burden, Isamu."

He frowned and reached out to push a stray strand of ebony silk from her face, trapping it behind her ear. Once she was looking back at him he met her gaze and trapped it momentarily. "You would only be a burden if he felt the weight of your presence in his life, Kagome. From what I have seen, your presence has made him stronger, whether he realizes it or not."

"I don't see how you could know that."

He chuckled. "Kagome, I have known Lord Sesshomaru since we were pups and he has never admitted himself to be wrong about anything… Until he admitted he was wrong about leading you to fear him. Admitting one's faults is strength whether it is generally believed or not. That and you are important enough to him that he marked you. In the whole of his long life, he has never marked a single being as his family. Not even his brother or a single one of his concubines. Do not think of yourself as his burden, Kagome, for you surely are not."

She blushed hotly and escaped the prison of his eyes to look down onto her hands. "Do you think he could ever think of me as more than his ward? As more than a child, I mean?"

He smirked, then looked away from the beautiful creature that stood so timidly before him as his hackled raised. Someone was stalking them. Someone who smelled of death and earth.

------

Kawaramaru crouched several hundred yards away from the human girl and the inuyoukai where they stood with their horses, talking. He smirked faintly and gripped the shard of baked clay Urasue had given to him to track down the whereabouts of Kikyo's reincarnation. He had traveled through the lands for nearly five months, simply walking without food or sleep until one day, two weeks before he had felt the shard pulse in his hand with power and then begin to throb.

It had taken less time to discover the girl once he had known he was close. He had seen a clay recreation of Kikyo's face and so it was only a matter of finding a girl who looked similar to her that the shard pulsed around in a similar way. Chance had brought him to the lake a few days prior where he had seen her with the same inuyoukai. He had ventured closer to her with each day that they returned to the lake until he was at a sufficient distance to complete his task. It mattered not if the girl lived or died. Her soul needed to only be freed and so, Kawaramaru, Urasue's clay general, had decided that dead would be a far easier task than bringing the girl to the ogress alive. Especially when she had a very powerful inuyoukai as her companion. Once she was dead, he would call out to Urasue and let her know that she could resurrect Kikyo.

He drew an arrow from his quiver already dowsed in poison and aimed steadily for the girl. The inuyoukai turned and snarled and he knew he only had one chance. He called out to Urasue and released the arrow. The last thing he saw was the girl falling with a soft cry and the enraged, bloody eyes of a transforming Isamu advancing on him with deadly intent.

------

There was pain. Burning, aching, twisting pain in his chest near his heart. When he opened his eyes, the deep amber was bleeding red. Someone had shot him… No… Shot Kagome and the arrow was unmistakably poisoned. He fell to his knees and gasped for breath.

"Maru?" Miyoko rushed to his side and grasped him by the shoulders. She captured his bloody gaze and gasped. "What happened?"

"K-kagome." He breathed and clutched at her shoulders to steady himself. "I have to get to her… Someone's shot her with a poisoned arrow."

"But Isamu…"

"I must go to her." He snarled and pulled from Miyoko's steely grip. He burst through his chamber windows, shredding and destroying the fragile wood and paper doors in a sphere of light toward where he sensed Kagome's failing life force.

Miyoko gasped, then followed Sesshomaru on her own acid cloud toward where she knew the girl she'd adopted as her own was fading into oblivion.

------

Isamu reached the clay general in a flash of claws and acid that shattered Kawaramaru instantly in a heap of earth and bone. His soul rose from his clay body and Isamu slashed out again, focusing his power into his claws, rending the soul into a certain oblivion. It was one of the Inuyoukai's greatest gifts along with their acid, poisonous touch that Sesshomaru had chosen to perfect. The inuyoukai general snarled and turned to Kagome. A deep whine slipped from his chest as he knelt beside her, cradling her beautiful, broken form in his arms.

He put his hand to the arrow and noted how deeply embedded it was in her side. The poison would kill her no matter what he did and if he removed the arrow, she would die quicker and surely in greater agony.

"Isamu…" Her voice was so hollow and broken. He could sense her fading into the next world and was helpless to stop her.

"I'm sorry…" He breathed, brushing tendrils of her hair from her face. "I did not sense him until he drew the arrow on you…"

"Wasn't… Your fault… I'm so cold." She shivered and pressed weakly into his arms, her blue eyes wide and glassy. "I'm afraid…"

"Don't be." He murmured and held her closer. He kissed her cheek and felt heated tears slip down his face. "You are good and pure. You will go to heaven… I promise."

"That's not… What I'm afraid of…" She gasped. It was so hard to breathe, so very hard to stay awake. Panic gripped her suddenly. "Tell him that I love him, Isamu… Please… Oh… It hurts… It…"

She cried out sharply and writhed against him in agony. He held her helplessly and watched her as her last breath shuddered from her. He shook and clutched at her, trying to wake her, the deep whine again escaping him before he howled in grief.

Sesshomaru landed only a few paces away from his general and his ward. The agony in the howl he heard coupled with the slow scent of death sent a ripple of indescribable pain through him. He felt the bond severed that had silently, almost imperceptibly linked them together and it was as if his world was shattering around him. He rushed to her and tore her from Isamu's arms with a low, threatening growl and retreated into the brush. The arrow was still lodged between her ribs. He whined and pulled it from her, pressing his palm over the wound that began to bleed freely, then dribble to a stop. He looked up and saw Miyoko and Isamu advancing on them and snarled in warning, wordlessly ordering them to stay away. He looked down into her pale face and shuddered, seeing the echoes of agony written onto her even though her features were slacken. A low, feral sound of rage ripped through him, then faltered as remorse took him and he howled his loss for his realm to hear.

And then the blade at his hip pulsed.

------

The pain was gone… No, her pain was gone. She was hovering over herself, watching with enrapt curiosity as she saw Isamu and then Sesshomaru and then Miyoko mourn her passing. She could feel their pain as palpably as her own. If she could have cried as a spirit, she would have. She wanted to reach out to him. She wanted to touch her Sesshomaru and tell him she was all right. That she wouldn't ever leave him, even in death. She wanted to tell him that he was her home… That she loved him, needed him to love her too, but she couldn't say the words. And then there was the pull. The pull of the pallbearers to heaven. She fought them ruthlessly… And then there was the other pull. The pull of the one… Back to something she wasn't any longer. Someone she never wanted to be again. She fought the other, too. She fought and writhed and reached out for Sesshomaru in panicked, uncontrollable clutching.

He was drawing his sword… Why was he drawing his sword? His eyes widened like he saw something, like he could see her being taken away. For a moment, time stood still. It was as if they were staring at each other through a great abyss of space and time and blackness where they were the only light the other could see. And then he slashed once, twice with his blade and she felt herself pulled back sharply from the icy embrace and pull from him to where she should have been.

------

She shuddered and then cried out. Her eyes flashed open and onto him and she began to shake. He had seen the pallbearers taking her and had sensed the other who dared to try and steal her away from him. He'd slashed out at the other as brutally as he had the pallbearers with Tenseiga and cut any hold either had on her brilliant soul. And then she'd started to breathe again. He held her tightly to him and ran a hand through her hair, brushing it from her brow before again placing his lips there to reestablish their bond. She whimpered and clung to him and he could smell her tears on her cheeks. Without thought, he leaned and drank them away with kisses and then captured her lips and mouth with his own.

She trembled but melted against him. Her slender fingers clutched the silk of his clothing and slipped into his hair gently, her cool fingers dancing along his jaw and throat softly. He caught her hand at his throat and wove their fingers together, deepening their contact, savoring the scent of her life returning and the taste of her mouth in such an unfettered contact. He could hear her heart speeding and her breath quickening beyond the fast pace of his and slowly pulled away so that their brows were touching. He nipped softly at her heated lips and held her close. His fear and the agony of feeling her die was still fresh, but then so was his rage. He looked down at her and quirked his lips at her soft, hooded expression. He sheathed his sword again and stood with her clutched in his embrace.

In the clearing, Miyoko and Isamu watched him emerge with the living Kagome held so protectively against their lord's chest. She was cradled tenderly, however his stance spoke that if anyone even attempted to take her from him, even Isamu or Miyoko, he would end them without a second thought.

"I need the two of you to bring the horses back with you to the palace… Isamu…" The general barely was able to meet his lord's eyes. "You killed who harmed my Kagome?"

He nodded. "He was made of clay, graveyard soil and the bones of the dead. I destroyed his soul as well."

Sesshomaru nodded. "He was working for another… There is one, somewhere to the South, I believe, who he was sent to kill Kagome for. This one tried to steal away her soul. I could sense them and I stopped them before they could even take a fraction of her from me. I want you to gather what is left of him and bring his remains to me. There will be blood and death for what they have tried today."

"Maru…" The Taiyoukai looked to her and Miyoko nodded with a faint smile. "The Southern Lord arrives in the very near future…"

"He will wait and Kagome will stay with me throughout except when I leave the palace to hunt the one who tried to take her from me. During the time I am gone, she will stay with you and Isamu's mate in his home while he accompanies me on the hunt." His tone left no room for argument. "You will guard her, Miyoko, as you once, long ago, promised to guard the one closest to me. No harm can come to her. None."

"Yes, my Lord." She said with a bow and a warm smile.

He nodded and took to the skies on his cloud, leaving Isamu and Miyoko to their own musings. Once he was away and in the air, he looked down on the girl who had fallen asleep in his arms. He leaned and breathed her in, nuzzling his brow into hers and then into her hair and neck and throat. She was still so very young in both body and mind. She was not ready, but he recognized that she was his and, from the way she returned his kiss, he knew she understood as well. He nipped and kissed her lips gently and made plans to deal with his concubines. It would take at least a year to establish places and mates for them, however, if he was careful, he could accomplish the task with very little pain or trouble on his part. There was only one he worried about. His first. The one who his mother had given him upon his ascension to the title of Lord of the West. Neither she nor his mother, who had intended the inuyoukai bitch to be his true mate in the way she had become his father's, would be pleased with the development. He didn't care, but he would be cautious. He had to be or he risked losing the treasure in his arms. In time she would be entirely his. He would mark her and take her into eternity with him and sire his heirs within her. The thought of her round with his children was enough to make him smile even though he still was overwrought from nearly losing her.

"I love you." He breathed to her sleeping mind and kissed her brow, causing their link to flare softly as he poured more of his energies into her.

"Maru…" She breathed and he held her tighter to him as they raced through the skies.

"I'm here." He whispered against her brow where his lips still rested. "I will always be here. You have my word."

------

Urasue fell back, clutching her chest in agony. Some powerful force had cut into her soul. She recognized it as the recessive power of the inuyoukai to attack the very soul of a person and the minions of heaven and hell. She had been collecting the reincarnated soul of Kikyo that her general, Kawaramaru, had located before he was destroyed and then, somehow, her spell had been ended and she had been only an instant from death. Had she not released Kikyo's soul when she had, she easily could have been dead without being even harmed physically.

"Enju, come here." She called out as she stood shakily.

"Yes?" She approached with her eyes downcast in sorrow.

"You will create new soldiers for my clay army. Kawaramaru has been destroyed and I fear that the ones protecting Kikyo's reincarnation will attempt to hunt me through the power I infused into his body when I reanimated him. I must have an adequate defense."

"What of Kawaramaru's soul?"

"He is gone." She said in disgust. "Ended from this world by the mystic power of the inuyoukai, no doubt. Go. Do as you are told."

The girl bowed and left the ogress quickly. Urasue scowled and looked into the swirling waters. She would need all her focus to call the souls of the most elite forces she could find.

------

He had not left her side until Miyoko had returned with Isamu to tend Kagome. He had carried her, first, to his room and then, upon surveying the damage to his balcony door, had gone to hers. Her wounds had healed with the slice of Tenseiga, but she was exhausted from fighting the other who was trying to take her away and from resisting the pallbearers. Her clothing carried the disconcerting scent of blood and her own death and it troubled him enough that he had ordered Miyoko to clean her completely and her clothing burnt. Miyoko had smiled secretly and bowed to him before going about her task.

"Send for me when you are done." He said softly without removing his gaze from the small form of Kagome who had curled tightly onto her side.

"I will, Maru." She murmured and watched him leave to attend to his shattered door. She smiled more warmly onto the girl who was so deeply asleep. She leaned and kissed her cheek, then her brow as well, forging a similar bond with her that Sesshomaru had, establishing Kagome as her family and one of her little brood. "You, my sweet girl, have gotten your wish."

Sesshomaru paused in the hall and closed his eyes as he felt another's energy join his within Kagome. He realized, then, that Miyoko had been waiting for him to realize the girl's true place in his heart before she claimed her as family. He smirked and went in search of the little toad, Jaken. He found the diminutive creature fretting in the gardens as he walked toward the concubine's house.

"Jaken."

The toad froze and turned to bow deeply to his lord. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?"

"First, I would have you send carpenters to my room to set my door again before I take my rest tonight. Second, I wish for you to begin to make arrangements for the pairing of the whole of my concubines with suitable mates for their station. You have a year to accomplish this task and if you fail, the wrath I face because of your failure will be yours ten fold."

"I… Of course, my Lord, but… Lord Sesshomaru, why have you decided to disband your concubines? Most, though not all, will not bring trouble here upon their removal, however… My Lord, what of Lady Satori's gift to you? The concubine known as Amaya? My Lord, for several decades now she has considered herself to be your mate even in spite of never being marked as such by you. It would almost be a better thing to have her exterminated in her sleep than send her away."

"Then deal with her in that way, Jaken."

"But, my Lord Sesshomaru… Please let your humble servant know why so I might understand for future quelling within your ranks…"

"It does not fully concern you yet, only that this Sesshomaru has decided to take a mate not among the ranks of my concubines. Only you, other than my elite, who would never divulge even the smallest secret I might desire to keep, and Miyoko, who I trust with my very life, know of this news. If it is divulged before I am ready to have it known, I will easily pinpoint the culprit, Jaken. Only you, among the whole of my staff who have knowledge now, might speak of it to one who should know, so be prepared that if the information does escape, you will be no more than a pool of slime when I finish with you."

"Y-yes, my Lord Sesshomaru. I swear it will not escape this, your most trusted, Jaken."

He nodded slightly. "Go about your duties, Jaken." Once the toad had left toward the palace, Sesshomaru turned to the stables. Isamu was only just finishing his work with the horses. His general froze and then turned to bow to his lord. He smirked slightly. "You are afraid."

He swallowed thickly and nodded his head before diverting his eyes. "My Lord's ward…" He paused and looked up suddenly and met Sesshomaru's eyes when he was certain they were alone. "My oldest friend's mate died in my arms when I'd sworn to protect her with my own life. I was careless. I expect the full wrath of the dread Lord Sesshomaru, but if my friend… If my friend Sessho would be kind and spare my mate and young a life in the cruelty of the human world and remain in his protective embrace, I could die in peace."

"But she is alive, Isamu, and her attacker dead." He approached the slightly shorter inuyoukai and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Help me find the one who orchestrated her murder and I will never mention your carelessness again. It will be forgotten."

He nodded and fought the smile that was building in his lips. "You do not flinch at the word mate as you once did."

"A flinch only you and Miyoko were privy to seeing. No other would have known what to look for. The time has come for you to ensure that my elite guard protects her as you promised they would, Isamu. Miyoko is correct of her youth. Though your mate was Kagome's same age when you marked her, I remember that she was entirely flowered and prepared for what you gave her. Kagome is not prepared nor ready for me as much as she might wish to think or I might desire." He released Isamu and met his gaze meaningfully. "I am releasing the whole of my harem, Isamu. It will be done over the span of a year or more."

"Amaya will not be pleased nor will your mother be."

He snarled faintly and looked to the ground. "Amaya will be dealt with in the safest manner that will protect my Kagome. If she dies, it will be quick and her remains disposed of before question can be made."

"And Satori?" He watched his lord and friend's reaction carefully. He knew Sesshomaru's feelings for Satori. He never showed her any level of respect and looked on Miyoko as his true mother.

"Let her try to question me, the Lord of the West, or attempt to harm my mate if she has the courage. Her only actions in regard to me was to birth me, ridicule me and attempt to control me through Amaya, who I cannot nor have ever been able to stand past rutting into submission." He smiled darkly and noted the tension running through Isamu. "Let her try, my friend. Let her try and then see what wrath I will show her for the attempt. I have always wanted her blood to stain my claws."

------

She woke slowly and noted the weight of warmth that was over her form. She blinked and took in her room and the sight of Miyoko gathering up her clothing that had been thrown unceremoniously into a corner. She saw the bloodstain on several articles and felt her chest clench. "It wasn't… A dream, was it?"

The elderly inuyoukai looked up and abandoned her chore in favor of going to Kagome's side. She lifted the girl into her arms and kissed her brow, flaring the mark she'd placed there and alerting Sesshomaru to the girl's waking and panic. Kagome began to calm, reacting to the surge of Miyoko's mark. "Yes, sweet girl, it was not a dream. But you are alive and safe in your bed and no one will ever take you from us again."

She clung to her nurse gently and nodded as tears slipped down her cheeks. "I… I thought he kissed me. I remembered he kissed me like… Like a princess in a fairy tale."

Miyoko smiled crookedly as Sesshomaru opened the door, knowing he'd heard her words. She ran a hand through Kagome's hair before gently laying her back onto her pillows. She smoothed the tears from her cheeks and took one of her slender hands, squeezing it gently. "That, little one is because he did. He is here and I must take your clothing to be burnt. The blood will never be washed out."

"I… I don't want to be alone." Her eyes shimmered as Miyoko pulled away. Some part of her sleepy mind had not yet registered Sesshomaru standing in her doorway.

"You are not." He murmured and met the surprised, glittering gaze of his Kagome unfalteringly. He nodded to Miyoko as she moved past him and then closed the door behind him. He walked slowly to her bedside and then paused next to it. "May I sit with you?"

She trembled and stared at him a moment in confusion, but then nodded and pushed back a bit onto her futon so he had room. He sat, resting his sword on the floor beside him, and reached out to push long tendrils of her hair behind her ear only to trace her jaw and throat in the same wandering way she had his while he had kissed her. She leaned into his touch and then grasped his hand with both of hers, holding his palm against her cheek while her eyes never faltered from his gaze. "I dreamed… You said you loved me."

He smiled a soft, warm smile that sent a shudder through her and tears down her cheeks. He leaned to her and kissed them away in the most tender, dutiful way, allowing his lips to linger close to her lips before he chose to speak against their rosy, velvety heat. "You did not dream."

"I was dead."

"Yes." He whispered against her lips, not certain of her response.

"You brought me back."

"Yes." His curiosity began to stir. "Why would I let you leave me? You are mine."

He felt her smile against his lips. "Yours?"

He paused and pulled back to observe the dancing joy in her deep blue eyes. He drew her into his arms and cradled her close to him, fearing and hoping at once for what her expression might mean. "Was I wrong to believe so?"

She laughed and pressed herself to him. She leaned and rested her head on his shoulder so her lips and breath heated his throat. "Are you mine, too?"

He blinked and embraced her ever closer to himself as he fought the shudder her breath was inciting through him. "I would very much like to be in time."

"Why in time?"

He chuckled and caressed her cheek, then tilted her head so she met his gaze. "You are so very young… It is true that other women your age are wed and with child, but you, my Kagome, have an innocence and youth to your soul that I would rather not tarnish before its time. I take pleasure in watching you bloom in your own time and so, while you are mine and I am yours, I will not bring our claiming to completion until you are ready for it."

She smirked and took his hand, kissing his palm gently. "What makes you so sure you're correct? That I'm not ready?"

He leaned to her, cupping her cheek as he slowly descended his lips onto hers in a soft, tender kiss. She trembled and returned the kiss as tenderly, sighing in a musical way that sent a shudder through him. He nipped her lips before pulling away to answer her. "Your heart is still a child's heart, taking wonder in the world around you and all I give to you. I wish it never to ebb or fade. If I were to take you, fully make you mine, I risk shattering that wonder in you. In time you will understand why I wait and why I make you wait."

"I want to understand now…"

He sighed and kissed her lightly before laying her back onto her bed. He smoothed her cheeks and took both of her hands in his, cradling their slender, fragile forms between his much larger, clawed digits. "You understand that I am Lord and ruler of all the Western lands?" She nodded and he continued, her eyes captured by his. "What that means is that all youkai within my realm are subject to me and my mercy. They follow my laws and those who live on my ancestral lands, especially, are my responsibility. Even the humans, though they are ruled by their human lords. Taking you as my mate is a very… Strong statement for both the humans and youkai of my rule as well as those throughout the whole of the country. Not even Izayoi, the mother of Inuyasha, was fully mated to our father. You would be fully mated to me, Kagome, and, knowing the spite and ire of my father's harem, I have decided to disband it for your sake. It is not that I do not think you capable of standing against them; it is out of respect for you and my own desire to have only you that I do this… But the price will be high. Until my harem is dealt with, I will not announce whom my intended is. You will be schooled on your responsibilities exclusively by Miyoko as time goes on along with your other studies."

"I'll be weakening your rule…"

Her voice was so certain and steady it staggered him. He nodded faintly and sighed. "To the other lords of the cardinal points, my choice to mate a human will be seen as a weakness, yes. But I do not. My elite do not and Miyoko does not…"

"Was Izayoi the reason your father died?"

He scowled and looked away. "One could interpret it as such. The dragon lord of the South, father to the current lord, took exception at my father's choice of even siring a hanyou child with her and so attacked him. My father won, however, while attempting to save Izayoi and Inuyasha from the wrath of other humans for her alliance with my father, he was killed while they were spared."

She fell silent and studied him intensely for several moments before she spoke. "I love you." His eyes flashed and he turned to meet her sparkling gaze. She smiled weakly and continued. "I love you so much, Maru… But I can't do this to you. Maybe it's because I do love you so much that I can pull away, now. You saved my life. You gave me another chance and a home and love and family and security. It doesn't matter how we met and the circumstances that brought me here and into your home, but… You're wrong, Maru, I do understand. And I know that if I let you go now, I'll be saving you."

"Kagome…"

"I don't want you to die." She said in a harsh, tear filled whisper. She sat up and reached out, caressing his jaw with infinite tenderness as saline rivers coursed down her cheeks. "Not ever and never because of me… Because of loving me. Find me a mortal husband in the villages on your lands. I'll be satisfied watching you from the distance, knowing you are safe."

He gripped her wrist and pressed her back into her pillows. He rested his weight gently on her, his brow touching hers softly as he captured her other wrist and pinned her down. She didn't struggle or protest, only sobbed once and melted beneath him. "Tell me it is what you want, but do not lie. I will know if you are lying. Tell me you want to leave and never look on this Sesshomaru again… That you want some human man rutting with you, kissing you, giving you children while this Sesshomaru lives without you. Say the words and I will let you go. Say them and mean them with your whole heart and I will give you your wish."

She was silent, weeping beneath him for what seemed like an eternity before she could speak again. "I can't…"

He smiled wickedly against her lips and then spoke in a deep, whispered baritone. "I would only let you go if I knew another could make you happier than I ever could. You are my Kagome and will always be, whether you give yourself up to me or not." He gripped her wrists, and then wove their fingers together before crashing his lips onto hers, kissing her fiercely but lovingly so that she would know she had hurt him by trying to pull from him but that she was forgiven and always would be. She tensed at first, then yielded to his kiss, returning it with breathless, beautiful little sounds that delighted him almost as much as the gentle gripping of her fingers to his. The heady scent of her arousal caught his attention and he smiled into the kiss before gently shifting and pressing his thigh between her legs, resting his weight against her slowly sensitizing core. She whimpered and then moaned into their kiss and he felt a thrill run through him. He pressed against her more surely and heard her moan and sigh again. He released her hands and wrapped his arms around her as he continued their kiss, resting one hand at the small of her back and the other behind her neck. Her slender fingers wove into his hair and gripped at his shoulders languidly, a breathy cry escaping her as he pressed more surely between her legs with his thigh.

Slowly he pulled back from her. He danced kisses along her jaw and throat, then to her lips once more before pulling away amid her weak protests. He sat at her side and pushed her hair from her brow, memorizing how soft her features were and how her eyes seemed lost in a dream. He captured her gaze after a moment and traced her lips with his clawed thumb. "You will not speak of leaving here again for my sake. If you do, I will silence you in the manner I did only a few moments ago. There is no other in my heart but you and I wish no other at my side. Freeing me from you would be more painful than any torture my enemies might conjure. It would be another matter entirely if there were another in your heart, but I know I am the only one you ache for." She trembled and blushed and he chuckled and leaned to kiss her reverently. "You love me and I love you. That is to be fought for, Kagome, not abandoned or turned from."

She smiled crookedly at him and nodded. "Promise me one thing, then?"

"What is the promise?"

"If I am to wait as you desire… That at least I get a goodnight kiss every night?"

He chuckled and leaned to kiss her brow, flaring their bond and sending a tremor between them. "This I promise."


	5. Made of Stars

Part Five

Binary Spectral Luminosity-Made of Stars

Everything in existence is made of the same basic elements. In ancient philosophy of the West, there were four basic elements and in the East, there were five. The West included earth, fire, air and water while the East included fire, air, water, wood and metal. It was said that each individual encompassed one or more of these elements based upon which stars they were born under. The stars decided who they were, where they came from, where they would go and what they would ultimately become. The stars were the tools of the divine that directed which element on earth would guide each human to their destiny. Time passed and people learned that there were elements that made up those basic spiritual elements. Their meaning was broken down into the mundane and soon, it wasn't so much about what was guiding the human soul from heaven to earth, but what made up each person and distanced them from the stars. But what makes up the stars? What elements compose them where they float in the vast nothingness of space? They are made up of the same atoms and electrons that make up every human being and every rock and tree and flame and wave on this tiny planet called Earth. We are all made out of stardust and stardust is made of our dreams.

He watched her as she sat and let her toes dip into the current of the stream. She was sitting on a rock that was nestled in the mud near the base of a small waterfall with her short hair down and wavy with a few soft ringlets caught up in the ebony cascade. She had been silent when they'd found her, taken her in and begun to care for her and now, even though there were moments where her voice stilled and she would look off into the distance with an expression of wonder and curious longing, most of her waking moments filled their days with the soft sound of her voice either in song or in question or in a simple flood of words that contained whatever thought she was caught up in.

"Rin."

She looked up and smiled at him with warmth and a child's devotion. "Yes, Inuyasha?"

"We'll be going soon. Miroku says he can sense more shards to the South." He replied in his usual tone that was both far away and present at once. Since they had taken the girl into their lives, his thoughts hadn't lingered much on his friend, Kagome, the cause of his own quest. She was still the catalyst, but, in the end, what he wanted was the jewel. He wanted to become a full inuyoukai so he could wield his father's sword with total mastery and best his brother. Kagome would be free, Sesshomaru would be dead and he would be the new Taiyoukai of the West. It wasn't so much that he wanted the title. What he wanted was acceptance and the power to be free and no longer ridiculed by both the human and the youkai world. He wanted to belong somewhere and the Shikon no Tama seemed the only way. His heart was still so filled with the betrayal of Kikyo that he could not see the err of his ways, however, every now and then, when Rin looked at him with her innocent eyes and smiled and seemed to see only him, not the impurity of his blood, he wondered if the path he'd chosen was the right one.

She stood and slipped her small hand into his much larger one, grasping three of his fingers. "Well, let's go then." She said with delight dancing in her eyes. The hanyou had been her saving grace in her short, troubled life. He'd killed the wolf youkai that had killed her family and, since then, had never forsaken her once. During battles, she stayed near Miroku while Inuyasha fought and, while they traveled, she was in charge of the vial of shards that they had collected. The vial was so full she wondered if they could be pieced together partially somehow. She counted that, all together, they had almost twenty shards in total.

Inuyasha chuckled and pulled the girl onto his back before jumping up and racing on the treetops to catch up with Miroku. Her laughter was like music in his ears as they moved with his grace fueled by the joy in her spirit. She was the reason he had learned to use his father's sword in the first place. His desire to protect her, as Myoga had explained it, had given him the strength to activate the blade and make it transform. And so it was she had become more than a simple obligation to him, though she never had been that in his mind. She was a responsibility, yes, but one that he accepted completely. She was whom he fought for. She was whom he protected.

------

"Do you know why I love you?"

He looked down at the placid expression adorning her pale, tear-stained face and met her gaze as she opened her eyes half way. "I do not."

She smiled sadly and reached up to push some of his ebony hair behind his ear. He caught her hand and kissed her palm reverently and her smile almost reached her eyes. "Because you're always near when I need you, Lord Kagewaki."

The months had been hard on her. While she and Kohaku had been recovering, their village had been destroyed by rogue youkai. No soul had been spared. Men, women and children were slaughtered alike. Sango carried each soul upon her shoulders, weighing her heart and mind until she could barely move from bed some mornings. Kohaku had begun hunting for the shards of the Shikon no Tama once it was learned that the youkai who had attacked their village had been in search of the shards to increase their power. Some foolish, careless miko had shattered it with an arrow and now it plagued the land. A kitsune named Shippo who had found his way to Lord Kagewaki's palace bloodied and near death had delivered the information to them. He had fought to defend the village and, in the heat of battle, had nearly fallen. Kirara, Sango and Kohaku's trusted nekoyoukai companion, had saved his life and gone in search of her friends with Shippo in tow. Kirara and Shippo, once both had healed, had decided to accompany Kohaku in his quest, leaving the heart sick Sango to convalesce and recover under Lord Kagewaki's care and infinite tenderness.

Shippo had been surprised by the behavior of the man he knew to be Naraku. He had ordered him to incite the siege of the slayer's village. Shippo had done so, but could not control himself as he watched the slaughter of so many innocents. He'd fought until he'd nearly been slain and was more than certain Naraku would kill him upon his return, however, the dark hanyou had used it to his advantage and constructed a group of shard hunters, all of which were under his power. As Kirara had recovered, he had also placed a shard in her back so he could watch her dreams and monitor her thoughts. Aside from the four he currently had in use, he only possessed five other shards. It was not enough to create an incarnation from his flesh, but was more than enough to hold his human form in check on all nights but the new moon.

On those nights, he ensured that all members of his castle staff, Sango included, were placed in a deep sleep while he fell to pieces in the dank basement below his bedroom. All other days and nights he spent dividing his time between the affairs of his land, the dojo and with Sango. There was never a moment she was not welcome at his side, nor that he would drop his activity to hold her and comfort her. Shippo had watched with curiosity and worry. He knew that Naraku was nothing more than a vile fiend. Yet… At times, when the kitsune caught Naraku looking at the beautiful slayer, he saw a kind of softness in his gaze that could not be accounted for. And, at night, after he would sit beside her so she could fall asleep without fear of the nightmares that plagued her, Shippo saw peace in Naraku's face as there had never been peace before. The peace only deepened as Sango came to love her Lord Kagewaki and depend upon his presence for more than simple comfort.

The kitsune watched the scene from a distant tree branch where he, Kirara and Kohaku had chosen to rest after their patrol before returning for the night. They often were out for several days at a time, however, of late, as the stories of Inuyasha, the monk and the human girl who traveled gathering shards of the jewel became more and more and rogue youkai with shards more and more rare, it was less often that they ventured into the wilderness on their search. Shippo knew it was only a matter of time before the trio came upon them. It was only a matter of time before the legendary second son of the Inu no Taisho with the powerful sword, Teutsaiga, and his allies hunted down the remaining shards Naraku had and attempted to take them. And then Naraku's veil would be shattered and Sango would have to choose between the reality of becoming enslaved as he, Kirara and Kohaku were enslaved and her dream of her gentle love, remaining in his good graces, such as they were. Kirara and Kohaku had come to know of their enslavement through the bond Naraku had with them created by the shards of the Shikon no Tama. They knew if they alerted their beloved Sango, Naraku would steal her will, if not, kill her to save himself from her heartbreak and feelings of betrayal. Shippo suspected it would also be to save himself from what heartbreak he might even feel, for even the evil could love. The love was twisted, but it was, indeed, love.

Naraku smiled faintly and leaned to kiss her sweet lips lightly. "You are tired, Lady Sango. It is a short walk to your rooms. I can take you there to nap until supper."

"Why do you call me Lady?" She asked in a hushed tone as he helped her to stand. He offered her his arm and she took it without thought only to lean her head lightly on his shoulder as he guided her back to the palace. "You have never called me anything but Sango before."

He paused and contemplated his answer momentarily before responding. All around him, there was a storm raging and turning in the force of his will. She was the only thing, the only one who was not subject to his will simply because he had chosen not to control her and for his efforts, because he had left her to her own mind and heart, he had found she became the eye at the center of his world. She was the calm space he returned to that brought him peace. He had not intended to become so close to his human emotions again. He had never wanted to feel such desire again, but he did. And yet, unlike with Kikyo, his desires were returned with devotion. He began to think of the long dead miko as unworthy and no longer fixated upon her or revenge upon her or Inuyasha. He only wished to keep what he had and, in time, collect the jewel so he could become a full youkai and give Sango exactly what he felt she desired: anything she wished.

The only ones standing in his way were Inuyasha and his followers. They had the shards Naraku desired and, simultaneously threatened the world he'd built where he was a lord and his Sango was his lady. A world where he could have all the power he ever desired and the love his heart needed to endure as well. He only hoped that none of the illusion was shattered and he had to take either his Sango's will or her life from her. If such would be the case, he would ensure all suffered, even those who were blameless. It barely even touched his mind that, if she did ever learn what and who he was before he had the entire jewel; she might actually still be able to love him. It wasn't even a possibility. He had slaughtered her family, ordered the destruction of her village, enslaved her brother and her companion, the nekoyoukai and he wasn't even remotely ashamed, nor did he regret doing so. He would, in fact, have done it again had he been given the chance. And, still, he ached for her to be his forever.

"I call you lady because I have hope one day you might be," he replied vaguely. He smiled half way as her eyes sparkled with a slightly building light he was certain he'd placed there. "Are my hopes unfounded, Lady Sango? Is there no way you would consider my proposal to you?"

She paused in her step and looked up to meet his gaze with a soft smile that seemed to shimmer from her. "The answer has been yes for much longer than I think you are aware, my Lord."

His lips upturned into a true smile and he nodded, leaning to rest his brow against hers. He lifted his hand to trail his fingers along her cheek, watching in wonder as her eyes closed but her smile remained. "Preparations will be made. I will do my best to bring you joy again, Lady Sango."

"You already do, my Lord." She murmured, and then sighed when he kissed her and held her close. She felt so safe. So safe and so loved. She knew she would do anything if it meant never having to lose what she'd gained at his side.

------

She traced the edge of the lacquered finish, letting her fingertips slide over the spiked shoulder and leather straps, memorizing the contours and textures and smell of his armor, knowing full well it and he would be gone. He had promised to return to her in only a few days, once he'd found the one who had attempted to take her soul away. The one who had sent the assassin made of clay and earth that had slain her. She knew he would return to her. She had unwavering faith in him and in his abilities. Still, she knew she would miss him. She would fall asleep every night without knowing his lips against hers or the soothing sound of his voice as he sang a whispered song to her as she drifted off to sleep so there would be no nightmares. She would wake every morning and eat breakfast with Miyoko and Isamu's mate and children instead of with him and even though she knew it would only be for a handful of days, her heart had decided it would be more like an eternity.

He watched her fingers as they traced his armor so reverently. He was dressed in the same silken garb he had been when he'd found her and needed only his armor to be ready to depart. Somehow the light touch of her fingers seemed more daunting than any other barrier that might have kept him from his breastplate. He knelt beside where she sat on his bed and reached out to caress her jaw. She looked away from where her fingers danced and turned her gaze onto him with a mournful look. She reached out and began to trace his face with the same fingertips as had been memorizing the planes and curves of his armor. He caught her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist and gave her a meaningful look.

"I just don't want you to go." She murmured in a weak tone, grasping his hand gently as she spoke.

"Do you fear this Sesshomaru not returning to his Kagome?"

She smiled and leaned to kiss him tenderly. He slipped his arms around her and drew her closer to him. "No," she murmured against his lips. "I don't fear that. I just don't want you to go. I will miss you."

He smiled wickedly and gently pressed her back onto his mattress beside where his breastplate lay. He kissed and nipped her throat worshipfully before capturing her lips in a heated kiss and settling his weight carefully onto her, parting her legs so their bodies were aligned with silken barriers the only things between them. She shuddered and returned his kiss lovingly with a pleading sigh. She knew he was toying with her. She knew he would not acquiesce and remain with her. He was making her melt to his will more surely than the threat of his acid could. She gasped softly as one of his hands trailed to her waist and then her hip, gripping softly at her thigh.

"I will miss you too," he murmured against her lips before drawing back just enough to capture her gaze, "You will be safe and I will return."

He slowly drew back from her and looked down at her slightly crumpled form. He'd disheveled her clothing and hair when he'd pinned her down with his weight and embraced her so tightly. He didn't feel even the slightest regret, she was simply so beautiful. He drew her up and kissed her eyes as tears began to fall. He wouldn't chastise her for her emotions. They were part of why he loved her so deeply. He held her close a moment more before he drew back and stood. He placed his armor on his chest and secured it as she watched with still shimmering eyes. Once he was finished, he extended a hand to her, which she took, and helped her to stand. Meticulously, he smoothed her clothing and kissed her brow reverently.

"It's time for us to meet Miyoko and Isamu in the gardens. Already your belongings have been sent to his home. They only await you."

"Will you both come with us?" Her voice wavered and, for a moment, he began to rethink his decision to leave. He ran his fingers through her hair and steeled himself again. What he was going to do must be done or else the villain might try again and, this time, he might not be able to bring her back.

"We will part in the gardens. There is not much time and I wish to return as soon as I am able to greet the Southern Lord."

She nodded in response and drew him down a moment to kiss him chastely. "I love you."

He leaned once more to brush his lips against her brow. The soft energy between them pulsed in reminder of their bond and she trembled and he smiled before releasing her. "We must go."

The walk to the garden was shorter than she had imagined it would be. She walked just behind him, looking at the hem of his garment and her hands the whole way. She remained silent and fought to maintain the outwardly serene façade that Miyoko had taught her to emote. Behind her face and within her eyes swirled the tumultuous swell of emotions she felt knowing that Sesshomaru, the man she loved, her lord and protector, was leaving. Any memory of him as her kidnapper had faded away to a faint shadow in her mind and while Inuyasha still lingered in her heart and thoughts on occasion, it was the fond reflection on a childhood fancy rather than the heat and devotion she felt for his brother.

Occasionally she still felt pangs for her mother and family and home. Now and then she thought of her school friends and wondered idly if any of those in her past could accept her strange journey as truth rather than the ravings of a poor, mad girl. Then the thoughts left her and she was back in her present at Sesshomaru's side in Miyoiko's care under the watchful eye of Isamu and her tutors. Slowly, as time went on, her past became more and more vague in her mind. Every now and then she even began believing that it all had been a dream and she had always been at Sesshomaru's side. It was his timelessness; she was certain, which kept her so firmly in the present. Everyone around her, in fact, was immortal. Once at maturity, they never aged further, though their eyes told the story of their eternity. She was the only creature within Sesshomaru's home that did change at all aside from the flowers and trees and grass, and so it was easy for her to fall into their ageless rhythm. Her mind was always in the present moment. The past did not matter and the future would come no matter what she or anyone did. So she accepted what came and lived within that instant without question or fear. Anything that came before was like a ripple on the surface of a pond broken by a stone: eventually the glassy stillness returned to the clear depths only changed deep below the surface with the addition of a single stone among thousands already settled at the bottom.

Maru was waiting for her held by Isamu along with Miyoko's horse. She paused next to her lord and looked up to meet his gaze that had fallen onto her. He reached out a hand and brushed the curve of his fingers along her cheek to which she inclined her head to lengthen the touch.

"Time will not be long."

"Be careful."

He smiled darkly. "There is more for them to fear of this Sesshomaru, but for you I will take care."

Her lips curved slightly into a half smile and she nodded as he pulled away his hand. He watched as she mounted Maru gracefully and then turned to give Miyoko a meaningful look. "Keep your promise."

"No harm will come to her." She replied softly before mounting her own horse.

He watched them ride to the northern gates and with every yard he felt tension pull taunt between them as the bond was stretched. "Are you ready?" He turned his attention to Isamu.

"I am."

------

The old hag looked at the seven clay bodies as Enju pushed them into the kiln. Urasue smiled faintly. Aside from the shell she'd intended for Kikyo's soul, these were by far her most perfect creations. She focused her energies and cast the spell that would resurrect the seven souls she had chosen to be her champions against the vengeance she had felt coming. She had not seen the face of the protector of Kikyo's reincarnated soul, but she knew from the power she had only barely dodged, he was one she should not take lightly.

The fires of the kiln blazed a moment, and then died down. With Enju's help, the door was open and Urasue looked upon her creations that stared back at her in confusion. "I know you are wondering how it is that you are alive after so long in hell. Do not be afraid. Come out and I will tell you everything."

"Who are you, Witch?"

Urasue raised a brow and smirked as they began to exit the kiln and opened her hand in the direction of their weapons and armor. She met the gaze of the one who spoke, a smaller man with long ebony tresses and a pale lavender star on his brow. "I am Urasue and I have brought you back so that I might have protection from he who comes for my life."

"What makes you think we would help you even if you did bring us back from the grave?" There was irritation in his voice as he began braiding back his long hair, noticing the eyes of the witch's apprentice on him.

"A challenge and the promise of the return of your lives. Currently you are only clay, graveyard dirt and bones with a tentatively attached soul. If you help me slay the one who comes for my life, I will be able to resurrect one who can help us locate and collect the shards of the Shikon no Tama which can be used to resurrect you and your brothers entirely. If you do not, in time your bodies will degrade and your souls will fade back into hell."

"Who is it who comes for you?"

She shook her head in answer to the question. "I do not know. I only know he is powerful enough to raise the dead and slay the imps of hell and nearly my own soul at a great distance."

He walked to the table and looked over the weapons lain out before donning his armor. "Where is my halberd, Banryu?"

"It was not at the grave," Enju replied softly from her place near the kiln's door. "It was taken by the lord who killed you and your brothers took it and has kept it."

"We can retrieve it and then we will fight this unknown warrior."

"There is not much time, Bankotsu," Urasue protested with urgency in her voice. "I can sense him coming even now."

"There are seven of us, Witch," he turned to his brothers. "Jakotsu and Suikotsu, you will come with me to retrieve Banryu. Your apprentice will come with us."

Enju looked at her hands and away from Urasue. "Why do you need her?" The witch asked suspiciously.

"We are no more than clay, as you said. I would like someone to come with us who can heal us if we are damaged."

Urasue nodded reluctantly and looked to her remaining protectors. "They should do, then."

Bankotsu smiled wickedly as he turned from her to look at Enju. "Yes. They most certainly will."

------

The old man walked slowly across the courtyard to the storage shed. It was the slow, sad shuffle of a man who had been claimed by age and sorrow. Six months earlier, his only granddaughter had gone missing with no explanation and was presumed dead. They had kept hope that she was still alive, that she would return home safely. Every morning and evening he would go to the well house to see if she'd returned and was hurt, but there was never any sign. After a few weeks, they had to list her as a missing person to the police. They could only keep her school at bay for so long before illness without hospitalization became an unbelievable excuse.

The police had asked their questions and they had answered them as well as they could. In truth, they did not know where Kagome was, only when. They were not entirely certain even with whom. He sighed and slid back the door to the shed. There was one certain thing in his mind: if she ever did return, he'd never let her out of his sight again.

He found the broom he was seeking and walked back to the door only to pause. The sound of metal against wood stopped him and he waited to see if the sound came again. When it did not, he shook his head and returned to the courtyard to sweep up after another long day at the shrine.

In the silence, the sound rang again several moments later in the dark of the shed. Sounga shuddered again and Saya tightened his hold. The seal was breaking.


End file.
